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lUN    3    1918 


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Harper,  William  Allen,  1880- 
The  new  church  for  the  new 
time 


BR  121  .H4 


The  New  Church  for 
the  New  Time 


By 

Prof,  ff^tlliam  A.  Harper 

The  New  Church  for  the 
New  Time 

i2mo,  cloth,  net  75c. 
Prof.  Harper  believes  in  the  future  of 
the  Church  of  Christ  and  justly  regards 
it  as  the  one  great  factor  for  the  ultimate 
saving  of  a  storm-tossed  world.  His  book 
is  a  well-balanced  plea  for  the  adoption 
by  the  Church  of  a  great  social-serving, 
uplifting  program  calculated  to  give  an 
added  impetus  to  her  spiritual  functions, 
and  a  new  vigor  to  her  temporal  agencies. 

The  New  Layman  for  the 
New  Time 

A  Discussion  of  Principles 
i2mo,  cloth,  net  75c. 
Outlines  from  a  layman's  standpoint, 
the  underlying  principles  which  should 
animate  the  modern  layman.  The  author 
confines  himself  to  a  discussion  of  these 
principles  rather  than  to  a  survey  of 
methods. 


The  New  Church  for 
the  New  Time 

A  Discussion  of  Principles  nV^^'  ^'0^^ 

N    3    191R 

WILLIAM  ALLEN  HARPER,  LL.D. 

President  of  Elon  College 

Author  of  Preparing  the  Teacher''  ''The  Making 

of  Men y^  *'The  New  Layman  for  the  New 

Time;'  etc. 


Introduction  by 
CHARLES  S.  MACFARLAND 


New  York  Chicago 

Fleming    H.    Revell    Company 

London       and       Edinburgh 


Copyright,  1918,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York :  1 58  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  17  North  Wabash  Ave. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh :       75     Princes     Street 


To 

The  One  Unconquerable  Force  in  the  Worlds 

The  Church  of  Our  Christ, 

Against  Which 

''The  Gates  of  Hell  Shall  Not  Prevail;' 

In  Full  Expectation 

That  She  Will  Valiantly  Enter  and 

Abtmdantly  Satisfy 

The  New  Time 


Introduction 

TO  keep  abreast  of  the  age  without  losing 
the  gathered  forces  of  the  ages  is  the 
task  and  duty  of  the  Christian  Church 
and  the  Christian  minister. 

Truth  is  eternal.  Its  life  is  progressive  and  it 
experiences  a  diversity  as  significant  as  its  own 
unity. 

I  have  thus  read  President  Harper's  books  with 
gratification,  especially  because  each  succeeding 
volume  bears  witness  to  the  progress  of  his  own 
thought  and  his  increasing  light.  The  spirit  and 
atmosphere  are  the  elements  that  give  a  book  its 
highest  value. 

This  volume  interweaves  statements  of  prin- 
ciple and  suggestions  for  action.  It  is  stimu- 
lating both  in  its  ideals  and  its  ideas.  President 
Harper  does  not  lose  his  spiritual  light  and 
evangelical  spirit  as  he  seeks  to  wend  his  way 
along  the  pathway  of  practical  activities.  This  is 
noticeable  in  his  treatment  of  social  duties. 

At  heart  all  human  life  is  spiritual,  and  while 
the  Gospel  must  glorify  the  fruits  of  the  spirit  it 
must  not  forget  the  spirit  itself.  There  is  a  tend- 
ency to-day  to  obscure  this  truth  and  to  over- 
magnify  environment  over  the  inward  life.     The 

9 


JO  INTRODUCTION 

Kingdom  of  God  will  not  appear  simply  by 
doubling  men's  wages  with  no  reference  to  con- 
scientious service.  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
will  not  come  through  shorter  hours  of  labor, 
without  regard  to  the  moral  uses  of  leisure. 
Social  regeneration  will  not  be  performed  by 
building  better  houses  if  there  is  no  concern  for 
better  men  and  women  and  homes  within  those 
houses. 

At  the  same  time,  while  the  life  is  more  than 
meat,  we  must  also  remember  that  the  meat  is 
necessary  to  the  life.  Our  social  reformers  are 
right  in  reaching  up  towards  the  heavenly 
through  the  earthly.  While,  with  the  one  hand, 
we  seek  to  transform  the  hearts  and  characters 
of  men,  we  must,  with  the  other,  seek  to  gain  for 
them  human  justice. 

No  social  program  will  ultimately  avail  that  is 
not  expressed  in  terms  of  the  spirit.  The  inward 
and  the  outward  life  must  reflect  each  other. 
Our  modern  social  movements  will  be  good  and 
abiding  only  as  they  are  the  revelation  of  the  di- 
vine mind,  as  **  In  Him  they  live  and  move  and 
have  their  being." 

One  weakness  of  our  social  reformers  is  that 
of  substituting  the  circumference  for  the  center, 
of  dealing  in  effects  without  sufficient  thought 
of  ultimate  causes.  So  while  religion  without 
humanity  is  sad,  it  is  equally  sad  to  have  a  hu- 
manity without   religion.     Such   a  humanity   is 


INTRODUCTION  it 

transitory  and  specious.  Our  real  social  leaders 
to-day  are  not  those  men  and  women  who,  in 
their  blind  zeal,  would  substitute  humanity  for 
religion,  who  would  displace  the  Christian  re- 
ligion by  the  club  and  social  settlement,  and  who 
neglect  spiritual  truth  in  the  supposed  interest 
of  human  comfort  Our  real  leaders  are  those 
men  who  have  a  profound  faith  in  God  who 
loves  men,  and  whose  love  of  mankind  is  an  ex- 
pression of  their  faith  in  the  Eternal. 

Jesus  is  the  sovereign  example  of  a  well-bal- 
anced mind  and  heart.  He  fed.  He  healed,  He 
comforted  men,  He  rebuked  the  rich  with  great 
severity,  but  He  was  always  saying  that  the  life 
was  more  than  the  meat.  He  was  always  lead- 
ing men  towards  the  fulfillment  of  their  life  in 
God.  His  whole  life  is  a  picture  of  the  blending 
of  religious  faith  with  human  sympathy,  two 
elements  which  in  Him  God  hath  joined  together 
and  which  by  man  should  not  be  rent  asunder. 

It  is  sad  to  see  men  and  women  in  religion 
trying  to  save  themselves  and  forgetting  all  the 
rest  of  the  world  except  perhaps  their  own 
charmed  and  chosen  circle.  It  is  just  as  sad  to 
find  men  trying  to  save  the  world  without  any 
vision  beyond  their  own  horizon  and  with  no 
strength  stronger  than  their  own.  We  are  living 
in  both  eternity  and  time,  we  must  seek  both  the 
geisteS'leben  and  the  ivelt-anschaiiung ^  to  use 
Eucken's  classic  terms. 


12  INTRODUCTION 

In  the  religion  of  Jesus  we  find  the  sense  of 
finality,  of  ultimate  reality,  and  thus  of  last  re- 
sort. The  knowledge,  the  sense  and  the  reality 
of  the  infinite  lie  behind  our  moral  universe. 
Human  life,  without  this  consciousness,  is  vain 
and  void.  In  the  last  analysis  it  is  without 
meaning  and  interpretation,  unless  with  the 
psalmist  we  can  say,  "  In  Thy  light  do  we  see 
light."  No  human  problem  receives  its  satis- 
factory answer  except  by  the  light  of  the  divine. 
As  the  psalmist  put  it :  **  Not  until  I  went  into 
the  sanctuary  of  God  did  I  understand." 

"  He  went  out  into  a  mountain  to  pray,  and 
continued  all  night  in  prayer  to  God. 

"And  when  it  was  day  ...  He  came 
down  .  .  .  and  stood  in  the  plain  .  .  . 
there  went  virtue  out  of  Him,  and  healed  them 
all." 

Thus,  with  the  Master,  he  who  does  the  work 
of  an  unselfish  ministry  in  the  daylight  hours 
must  find  his  way  back,  at  eventide,  to  the 
sources  of  his  refuge  and  his  strength  ;  there  is 
no  lasting,  perfected  social  service  without  its 
commensurate  spiritual  culture,  and  the  one  will 
be  as  real  and  abiding  as  the  other  is  deep  and 
reverent. 

This  volume,  largely  because  of  its  balance,  is 
thus  a  waymark  upon  the  road  of  transition 
which  the  Christian  Church  is  travelling  and 
thus  helps  us  to  chart  the  way.     Its  author  is 


INTRODUCTION  J3 

notable  for  the  manner  in  which  he  keeps  his 
eye  confidently  upon  the  goal,  while  at  the  same 
time  he  looks  about  with  discernment  upon  the 
great  movements  of  his  day  and  generation.  It 
is  thus  the  awakening  voice  of  a  man  who  is 
himself  awake  to  those  currents  of  human  life 
which  affect  and  largely  determine  the  course 
and  destiny  of  the  Christian  Church,  For  these 
causes  I  am  glad  of  the  privilege  of  introducing 
it  to  its  readers. 

Charles  S.  Macfarland. 


Contents 

Foreword       ..... 

17 

L 

Its  Principles         .... 

25 

II. 

Its  Gospel 

47 

III. 

Its  Physical  Plant 

67 

IV. 

Its  Church  Year    .... 

96 

V. 

God's  Presence— Its  Power  and 

Hope    , 

117 

Appendix  ...... 

139 

15 


Foreword 

THESE  are  crisal  days.  The  world  is 
rapidly  changing,  both  in  its  ideals  and 
in  its  emphases.  The  supreme  struggle 
of  human  history  is  being  decided  on  the  battle- 
fields of  the  earth,  and  on  the  sea,  and  in  the  air. 
Life  will  never  be  the  same  when  the  battle-flags 
have  been  furled,  nor  will  its  institutions.  Ele- 
mental changes,  reconstructions  that  shall  really 
reconstruct,  are  imminent.  For  a  thousand  years 
men  will  look  back  to  this  day  as  marking  a  turn- 
ing point  in  human  progress. 

These  changes  will  most  assuredly  vitally 
relate  themselves  to  the  governments  of  the 
world  and  to  the  industrial  life  of  their  citizens. 
The  men  of  America  who  survive  the  trench  war- 
fare will  return  home  and  demand  a  new  social 
and  industrial  order — an  order  which  they  will 
fashion  and  share.  They  will  dominate  our 
elections  and  dictate  our  life  for  a  generation,  just 
as  did  Grant's  and  Lee's  veterans,  only  more  so. 
And  in  that  hour  the  Church  will  not  escape.  It 
ought  not  to  escape.  It  ought  not  to  wish  to  es- 
cape. Before  the  giant  tragedy  involving  the 
world  in  this  holocaust  of  blood  and  slaughter 
was   staged,  there  was  a  muttering  discontent 

17 


J8  FOREWORD 

with  the  Church,  nay  more,  open  and  insistent 
criticism  and  that  too  by  those  who  loved  her. 
The  new  time  that  shall  succeed  the  awful 
carnage  and  fell  desolation  of  our  war-ridden  day 
shall  demand  and  will  receive  a  new  Church. 

The  noble  protest  of  the  leading  laymen  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  against 
the  bishopric  of  that  splendidly  efBcient  body  of 
Christian  workers  is  evidence  that  democracy  is 
not  only  to  obtain  in  government,  when  the  new 
time  is  fully  come,  but  that  it  is  to  baptize  the 
Church  of  Christ  itself  with  a  new  freedom.  The 
death-knell  of  autocratic  rule  is  sounded,  and  it 
must  go,  in  Church,  in  industry,  in  State,  in 
every  institution  serving  the  life  of  men.  We 
are  to  learn  in  everything  to  respect  the  sov- 
ereignty of  every  man  and  to  esteem  each  as  a 
prince  and  a  king.  The  Church  will  insist  with 
Peter  and  John  that  all  men  are  brothers  and 
that  all  Christians  are  **  kings  and  priests  unto 
God."  Woe  to  any  autocrat  who  essays  to  lord 
it  over  God's  freemen  in  this  new  time  I 

The  new  Church  will  arise,  strong  and  power- 
ful, with  healing  in  her  wings,  knowing  and 
understanding  her  Lord's  prayers — the  one  He 
taught  His  disciples  and  the  one  He  prayed 
Himself — and  comprehending  their  implications. 
The  prayer  Jesus  taught  His  disciples  is  a  social 
prayer.  It  is  "  our  Father."  We  seek  "  oiw  daily 
bread."     We  ask  forgiveness  for  '•  our  debts,"  or 


FOREWORD  J9 

"  0U7'  trespasses,"  as  **  we  forgive  those  who  tres- 
pass against  us^^  or  as  "  we  forgive  our  debtors." 
We  petition  the  Lord  to  "lead  us  not  into 
temptation  "  and  to  "  deliver  us  from  evil."  No 
social  worker  could  desire  a  more  thoroughly 
social  prayer  than  this,  and  according  to  this 
pattern  we  are  to  pray,  and  we  will  1  The  spirit 
of  this  prayer,  the  spirit  of  Brotherhood,  will  per- 
meate the  new  Church  and  glorify  it  as  the 
servant  of  God  and  of  His  children. 

And  that  wonderful  outpouring  of  His  soul  to 
the  Father  in  the  hour  preceding  His  agony,  the 
real  Lord's  prayer,  will  be  central  in  the  Church 
of  the  new  time.  Its  spirit  is  to  be  the  spirit  ani- 
mating, making  alive  and  fruitfully  efficient,  the 
new  Church.  And  what  is  its  spirit  ?  The  one- 
ness of  God's  people  with  each  other,  as  Jesus 
and  His  Father  are  one.  We  shall  sink  our 
differences  in  the  urgency  of  the  crisal  times 
ahead.^  We  shall  learn  the  pure  joy  of  Christian 
fellowship  in  a  united  service.  Already  the  war 
has  brought  us  together.  Protestants,  through 
the  Federal  Council  of  Churches  of  Christ  in 
America,  and  Catholics,  through  the  accredited 
representatives  of  their  Hierarchy,  worked  side 
by  side  and  in  perfect  accord  to  have  the  number 
of  chaplains  for  the  National  Army  kept  at  one 
for  every  1,200  enlisted  men.     It  was  beautiful 

1  As  evidence  further  witness  the  Pittsburgh  Congress,  October, 
191 7,  and  its  findings. 


20  FOREWORD 

to  behold  the  representatives  of  these  two  great 
and  powerful  branches  of  the  Church  of  our 
Christ  in  common  presenting  their  petition  to  the 
U.  S.  Senate,  to  President  Wilson,  and  to  Secre- 
tary Baker.  '*  Behold  how  good  and  how  pleas- 
ant it  is  for  brethren  to  dwell  together  in  unity." 
In  our  new  time  the  dew  shall  fall  on  our  spiritual 
Hermon,  the  new  Church,  and  on  her  the  Lord 
shall  command  **  the  blessing,  even  life  for  ever- 
more," because  she  shall  have  learned  to  give 
answer  in  her  organic  Hfe  to  the  noble  petition 
of  her  Master  with  reference  to  His  followers — 
"  that  they  be  one,  as  we  are  one,"  ''  that  they  all 
may  be  one ;  as  thou.  Father,  art  in  me,  and  I  in 
thee,  that  they  also  may  be  one  in  us."  In  that 
day  all  men  shall  believe  that  God  really  sent 
Jesus  and  in  that  day  too  glory  shall  fasten  itself 
permanently  on  the  banners  of  the  Church, — 

Provided  the  Church  shall  also  have  learned 
the  real  Golden  Rule.  What  is  commonly  known 
as  the  Golden  Rule  is  the  high  w^ater-mark  of 
Hebrew  prophetic  and  legal  teaching.  It  is  not 
the  New  Testament  standard,  which  soars  above 
it  in  the  majestic  splendor  of  its  outreach  and  in- 
take. Jesus  makes  this  perfectly  plain,  when  in 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  He  says  :  "  Therefore 
all  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should 
do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them."  Why? 
"  For  this  is  the  law  and  the  prophets."  Jesus 
does  not  offer  this  rule  as  His  distinctive  teaching 


FOREWORD  2J 

in  the  realm  of  social  morality.  His  command- 
ment, the  eleventh  commandment  that  fulfills  and 
completes  all  other  commandments  perfecting  all 
law  and  all  prophecy,  setting  up  the  final  standard 
of  Christian  duty,  is  high  and  lifted  up  above  this 
summary  of  Hebrew  moral  aspiration  given  in 
His  early  ministry.  His  standard  is  found  in 
John  15  :  12  and  into  it  gathers  the  essence  of 
spiritual  life.  In  this  splendid  moment  the 
Heavens  open  and  the  pathway  to  its  eternal 
haven  is  made  plain.  It  is  the  path  of  love,  not 
selfish  love,  not  human  love,  not  even  mother 
love.  It  is  divine  love.  It  is  that  fine  word  so 
characteristic  of  the  prophet  Hosea,  hesedh,  love, 
mercy,  loving  kindness,  all  three  of  these,  and 
with  the  added  idea  of  voluntary  sacrifice  because 
of  love  for  others.  It  is  the  most  majestic  utter- 
ance in  the  literature  of  the  world.  It  is  the  con- 
summation of  the  human  life  of  the  Son  of  God. 
Hear  His  command,  O  Church  of  the  new  time, 
hear  it  and  live.  **  This  is  my  commandment, 
that  ye  love  one  another,  as  I  have  loved  you." 
Let  the  Church  hear  this  commandment  and 
practise  it,  and  the  Kingdom  will  speedily  come. 
Other  elements  of  change,  too,  will  enter  into 
the  new  Church  for  the  new  time.  As  a  layman 
who  loves  the  Church  views  them  they  are  de- 
picted in  the  succeeding  pages.  The  ideas 
therein  set  forth  have  ripened  gradually  as  the 
author  has  studied  and  thought  and  prayed  and 


22  FOREWORD 

undertaken  to  do  his  bit  for  the  Kingdom.  He 
has  in  this  book,  as  in  his  previous  writings,  con- 
fined himself  to  principles,  leaving  methods  to  be 
worked  out  and  applied  locally  as  the  Spirit 
shall  lead.  There  has  been  joy  in  the  writing  of 
this  volume  and  it  is  sent  forth  with  the  earnest 
prayer  that  God  may  use  it  to  stir  the  Church 
into  a  realization  of  the  grave  crisis  we  face  and 
to  point  the  way  for  the  ingress  of  a  new  Church 
that  shall  mightily  serve  Him  and  the  interests 
of  His  Kingdom  in  our  new  time. 


ONWARD  TO  PERFECTION 

<*  Blest  is  the  man  of  high  ideals, 

Who  fails  to-day,  to-morrow,  and  for  days  to 

come, 
But  never  lowers  his  standards,  nor  surrenders 

to  defeat. 
Till  hand  and  foot,  till  eye  and  ear. 
Till  vocal  chord  and  tongue, 
Till  mind  and  heart  are  disciplined, 
And  all  abilities  of  body  and  of  soul 
Are  marshalled  by  the  will 
And  move  onward  to  the  drum-beat  of  perfection. ' 


The  Texts  of  this  Book! 


"  If  you  will  not  hold  fast,  verily  you  shall 
not  stand  fast," — Isaiah. 


**  The  brotherhood  of  mankind  must  no 
longer  be  a  fair  but  empty  phrase ;  it  must 
be  given  a  structure  of  force  and  reality. 
The  nations  must  reahze  their  common  life 
and  effect  a  workable  partnership." 

—  IVoodrow  Wilson. 

«  The  nineteenth  century  made  the  world 
into  a  neighborhood  ;  the  twentieth  century 
will  make  it  into  a  brotherhood." 

— Joseph  Cook, 


THE  MAN  FOR  THE  NEW  TIME 

Have  you  done  things  worth  while,  have  you  drifted  along. 
Have  you  filled  it  with  sighs,  have  you  filled  it  with  song. 
Have  you  helped  when  you  should,  have  you  tried  to  do 

right. 
Have  you  struggled  for  good,  or  just  fought  on  for  might  ? 

Have  you  given  your  hand  to  some  fellow  in  need. 
Have  you  sneered  at  the  man  who  was  not  of  your  creed. 
Have  you  been  open-hearted  and  ready  to  do. 
Have  you  tried  to  be  just,  have  you  tried  to  be  true  ? 

In  your  judgment  of  men,  have  you  been  always  fair. 
Have  you  learned  to  forgive  in  the  face  of  despair. 
Have  you  fought  against  greed,  or  succumbed  to  its  lust. 
Have  you  learned  what  it  means  to  protect  and  to  trust  f 

Oh,  it's  easy  to  preach  and  it*s  easy  to  tell 
Of  the  other  chap's  faults — but  our  own  faults,  ah,  well ! 
We  are  cowards  at  times,  and  the  truth,  you  will  find. 
Is  a  thing  we  dislike,  for  it's  rather  unkind. 

But  the  Past,  let  it  rest.      Give  a  thought  to  To-day, 
And  To-morrow,  as  well,  for  the  Time's  growing  gray  ; 
Do  the  things  that  you  should,  do  the  best  that  you  can. 
Crown    your    life   with  good   deeds — be   a  red-blooded 

MAN  ! 

—  W.   Dayton  Wegefarth. 


ITS  PRINCIPLES 

CHRIST  speaks  specifically  of  the  Church 
but  twice.  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven, 
the  Kingdom  of  God— these  are  His 
favorite  designation  of  the  new  order  He  came 
to  establish.     The  Church  has  always  desired  to 

identify  itself  with  the  Kingfdom. 
The  Church  vs.  .  ^.  , 

the  Kingdom  ^^   ^^ery  generation   many  who 

reverence  the  Kingdom  have 
found  the  fellowship  their  souls  craved  outside 
the  Church.  This  situation  is  more  pronounced 
to-day  than  in  any  previous  age.  Christ  was 
never  the  acknowledged  Leader  of  men  and 
movements,  the  Incarnation  of  their  ideals,  as 
He  is  to-day.  The  Church  has  never  been  more 
repudiated,  more  ridiculed,  more  execrated  than 
in  this  present  era.  Men  love  Christianity.  They 
detest  Churchianity,  They  bless  and  revere  the 
Christ.  They  damn  and  anathematize  His  Church. 
Why? 

Because  the  Church  is  self-centered.     Because 
it  is  more  interested  in  theology  than  in  men. 

Because  its  salvation  is  for  safety 
Why  Men  Execrate  j         ^    r  •  r) 

the  Church  ^^^  ^^^  ^^^  service.     Because  it 

is  more  concerned  for  the  con- 
tinuation of  its  services  than  for  the  investment 

25 


26  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

of  its  resources  in  methods  of  service.  Because  it 
is  the  champion  of  the  status  qico,  a  reactionary 
rather  than  a  progressive  influence  in  society. 
Because  it  trusts  to  organization  rather  than  to 
sacrifice,  than  to  agony  of  heart,  than  to  travail 
of  soul,  that  the  world  may  see  its  Lord's  glory. 
Because  it  has  denied  its  Founder's  doctrine  of 
the  Brotherhood  of  Man  based  on  the  Father- 
hood of  God.  Because,  becausey  BECAUSE,  but 
these  are  enough.  Whoever  has  attended  a 
gathering  of  working  men  in  a  great  theatre  on 
a  Sunday  afternoon  and  heard  them  lustily 
applaud  the  name  of  the  Captain  of  our  Salva- 
tion and  as  lustily  hiss  the  mention  of  His  Church, 
whoever  has  had  this  startling  experience 
knows  that  the  Church  in  our  day  faces  a  crisis 
such  as  has  never  before  threatened  organized 
Christianity  in  any  of  its  twenty  centuries. 

And  we  cannot  disregard,  we  dare  not  attempt 
to  disregard  the  ominous  situation.  The  forces 
These  Critics  Must  ^^  ^^  Kingdom  without  are  call- 
Be  Won  to  the  ing  to  the  forces  of  the  Kingdom 
Church  within  the  Church,  are  calling  for 
a  frank  discussion  of  their  arraignment  and  they 
will  be  heard.  We  do  not  admit  that  the  mili- 
tant "  withouters  "  are  right.  Their  grievances 
are  satiable.  The  Church  can  win  these  men  to 
active  cooperation  with  her  in  her  desire  to 
hasten  the  millennium.  She  has  taught  the  prin- 
ciples they  defend.     Their  presence  at  her  door 


ITS  PRINCIPLES  27 

is  the  fruitage  of  her  own  sowing.  She  has  a 
right  to  harvest  their  splendid  zeal  and  conserve 
it  to  her  own  righteous  ends.  These  men  need 
to  get  a  new  conception  of  her  place,  her  right- 
ful place  let  me  say,  in  the  Kingdom,  her  cen- 
tral, dynamic  station  as  its  heart.  I  am  praying 
as  one  that  loves  the  Church  that  she  may  weather 
this  crisis,  as  she  has  many  another.  My  hand 
and  my  heart  are  with  her  in  the  effort.  But 
there  must  be  a  basis  of  agreement  if  she  wins 
these  men  and  some  readjustments  in  concept, 
aim,  and  methods. 

No   man   must   be   presumptuous  enough  to 
claim  to  know  the  panacea  for  our  present  situ- 
ation.    The   issues   involved   are 
And  So  Let  Us         involuted  and  also  convoluted.    A 

Begin  r  .        . 

maze  of  mtricate  mtertwmmg  pre- 
vents that  clarified  discernment  which  the 
prophet  in  every  age  must  have  before  he  can 
confidently  preface  his  proposals  with  a  **  Thus 
Saith  the  LordP  At  most  we  can  but  indicate 
the  direction  to  be  taken.  In  that  spirit  we  shall 
with  many  misgivings  undertake  to  blaze  the 
trail,  leaving  for  the  skilled  engineers  who  follow 
the  duty  of  constructing  the  way  of  the  Lord  and 
to  make  its  paths  straight. 

And  in  the  first  place  let  us  say  that  the  Church 
needs  frankly  to  acknowledge  its  mortality.  The 
individual  Christian  may  hope  for  immortal  life, 
but   the  Church   never.     Her   only   hope   is  to 


28  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

serve  well  in  this  life  the  men  and  women,  boys 

and  girls,  and  the  dumb  creatures  whom  God  has 

The  First  Need  is      created.     And   in   this  work,  this 

for  the  Church  to      glorious  work,  she  is  assured  of 

Recognize  Her  victory,  for  "  the  gates  of  hell  shall 

True  Mission  ^^^  ^^^^^^^  „  ^^^^^^^  ^^^       g^^  j^ 

heaven  the  Church  has  no  more  place  than  Satan. 
He  was  cast  out,  and  we  read  in  the  Revelation 
that  there  is  to  be  no  temple  in  the  New  Jerusa- 
lem. There  will  be  no  need  for  one.  Its  work 
of  preparation,  of  redemption,  will  have  been 
perfectly  wrought.  The  Church  will  have  meted 
out  its  service,  and  will  have  disappeared  in  the 
Kingdom.  A  correct  conception  of  her  place 
should  hearten  the  Church  to  realize  her  program 
in  the  world.  She  is  the  organized  body  of 
Christ's  followers,  organized  not  for  her  own 
sake,  but  to  plant  His  Kingdom  firmly  in  every 
heart.  She  is  to  use  her  every  power  to  upbuild 
the  Kingdom,  make  it  universal,  and  render  her- 
self in  the  end  supernumerary.  When  the  Church 
gets  this  conception  of  herself  as  servant  ineradi- 
cably  engrafted  into  her  life,  no  one  can  truth- 
fully charge  that  she  is  endeavoring  primarily  to 
enlarge  herself — that  self-perpetuation  is  her 
major  business.  Growth  will  come  to  her,  of 
course,  just  as  soul-enlargement  comes  to  every 
man  who  gives  himself  in  service  to  his  fellows. 
But  growth  will  be  the  by-product,  not  the  cen- 
tral aim  in  her  organization.     In  the  light  of  this 


ITS  PRINQPLES  29 

principle  the  success  of  evangelism  will  not  be 
in  the  number  of  conversions  and  of  additions  to 
the  Church,  but  in  the  spirit  of  service  it  quick- 
ens in  the  church  constituency.  When  that 
spirit  permeates  the  life  of  the  Church,  no  minis- 
ter will  oppose  such  gospel  team  work  as  that  in 
Wichita,  Kansas,  or  Cleveland,  Ohio,  on  the 
ground  that  it  takes  the  leading  members  away 
from  the  preaching  service,  for  then  the  minister 
will  rejoice  that  his  proclamation  of  the  way  in 
Christ  has  sent  his  men  out  to  make  them  lead- 
ing me7i  indeed,  leading  their  brothers  to  Christ. 
When  that  spirit  has  Pentecostalized  the  Church, 
it  will  teach  not  only  the  Christian  stewardship 
of  wealth,  by  which  it  lays  claim  to  one-tenth  for 
its  own  purposes,  but  the  Christian  trusteeship 
of  wealth,  by  which  it  will  teach  that  all  wealth 
is  under  obligation  to  all  of  man  and  of  every 
man.  Such  a  Church  will  stand  the  acid  test  for 
its  gospel.  It  will  proclaim,  it  will  incarnate  the 
vital  gospel,  pure  and  unadulterated,  not  a  dena- 
tured variety  pandering  to  the  prejudices  of  in- 
fluential supporters.  It  will  most  succeed  where 
it  most  gives  itself.  Like  the  Moravians,  its  re- 
sources will  be  expended  elsewhere  than  on  keep- 
ing its  own  machine  oiled  and  in  operating  con- 
dition. I  know  churches  that  are  animated  with 
this  spirit.  It  is  heaven  to  come  under  their  in- 
spiration. I  want  that  every  church  everywhere 
shall  be  so  dispositioned.     When  they  have  thus 


30  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

become  John-the-Baptistized,  the  way  of  their 
Lord  will  be  prepared  and  He  will  come  again 
and  His  holy  angels  with  Him.  God  hasten  the 
coming  of  that  grand  and  glorious  day ! 

And  now  let  us  consider  the  preacher,  the  pas- 
tor, the  minister.  I  much  prefer  to  call  him  the 
Then  the  Ministry  minister,  both  because  that  word 
Must  Revise  Its  in  its  origin  signifies  the  function 
Plans.  It  Will  Preach,  of  the  man— he  is  to  be  a  servant 
®  y  — and  because  also  the  functions  of 
the  preacher  and  the  pastor  ought  not  to  be 
wholly  delegated  to  him.  A  short  while  ago  I 
published  in  a  book  on  the  layman  ^  my  views  on 
the  relation  of  the  layman  and  the  minister.  It 
fell  into  the  hands  of  a  devoted  worker  who  wrote 
that  he  regretted  to  see  any  tendency  in  our  time 
to  exalt  the  layman  at  the  expense  of  the  preacher.^ 

'  "  The  New  Layman  for  the  New  Time."  Fleming  H.  Revell 
Co.,  158  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City.     Price  75  cents. 

2  "  Dr.  Harper  is  a  layman  and  writes  this  book  to  stimulate  the 
awakened  interest  of  laymen  in  all  forms  of  modern  church  activity. 
In  his  brief  survey  of  history  for  the  place  and  achievements  of  the 
laymen  of  other  days,  he  is  not  over  particular  in  placing  distin- 
guished men  in  the  class  with  laymen.  Of  course  every  preacher 
was  once  a  layman.  The  author's  purpose  encourages  him  to  act  as 
if  once  a  layman  always  a  layman.  The  popular  mind,  however, 
will  continue  to  think  of  Paul,  Calvin,  Wesley  and  Moody  as 
preachers.  The  method  of  exalting  the  laity  of  the  Church  at  the 
expense  of  the  clergy  has  never  appealed  to  me  as  a  wise  procedure. 
One  can  marshal  quite  an  array  of  ecclesiastical  tyrannies,  quite  a 
formidable  exhibit  of  *  overlords '  if  he  has  the  mood  for  it.  But 
Protestant  Christianity  is  enjoying  a  glorious  democracy  to-day  and 
faces  insistent  problems  that  have  no  vital  relation  to  ecclesiastical 
oppression." 


ITS  PRINCIPLES  3J 

He  had  missed  my  point  of  view  entirely.  In  that 
book  and  everywhere  my  insistence  is  that 
preaching  is  not  the  prerogative  of  ministers  only. 
Every  Christian  is  a  priest.  Every  Christian  is 
a  preacher.  Every  Christian  is  an  evangelist. 
No  man  can  delegate  his  priestly  relationship  to 
the  Kingdom  to  another.  No  minister  can  do 
my  w^ork  of  proclaiming  the  Gospel.  No  minis- 
ter can  receive  my  proxy  as  an  evangelist.  I 
yield  to  no  man  in  my  respect,  my  reverence  for 
the  ministry.  It  is  because  I  have  so  exalted  an 
opinion  of  that  calling  that  I  insist  that  it  must 
not  exhaust  its  vitality  in  mere  talk.  I  expect  to 
see  the  custom  prevalent  in  the  Church  of  the 
minister's  calling  on  his  capable  laymen  and  lay- 
women  to  preach  for  him  frequently,  while  he 
gives  himself  to  the  weightier  matters  of  the 
Kingdom.  And  so  there  will  certainly  in  future 
be  no  need  for  the  church  to  close  when  the  min- 
ister takes  his  vacation. 

Nor  will  those  weightier  matters  be  confined  to 
pastoral  duties.  Just  as  the  minister  is  the 
preacher  par  excellence^  even  so  he  is  the  pas- 

To  which  the  author  made  reply : 

"  I  have  no  quarrel  with  your  estimate  of «  The  New  Layman  for 
the  New  'Time.'  Your  connectional  views  influence  you  in  your 
estimate  of  Chapter  I.  But  I  do  not  insist,  do  I,  that  *  once  a  lay- 
man always  a  layman '  ?  I  may  myself  one  day  be  a  minister.  I 
am  now  a  preacher.  When  I  become  a  minister,  I  must  submit  to 
the  church  law  of  my  choice.  I  can  preach  as  a  layman  since  I  am 
a  priest  unto  God.     This  is  my  view," 


32  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

tor  i7i  excelsis.  The  time  will  never  come  when 
the  minister  will  not  be  expected  to  visit  in  the 
homes  of  his  membership  and  of 
Bu?  N^t  Wholly  ^^^  parish-ship.  What  a  benedic- 
tion it  is  to  have  the  minister  come, 
bringing  with  him  the  rays  of  eternal  life,  open- 
ing the  Book,  and  petitioning  the  Throne  for 
spiritual  blessings  on  the  family  group  I  There 
is  unction  in  a  scene  like  that.  Happy  expe- 
rience I  We  shall  not  let  it  pass.  But  the  work 
of  visitation,  visitation  of  the  pastoral  type,  can- 
not be,  must  not  be  delegated  to  the  minister 
alone.  We  laymen  must  visit  too.  In  the  spirit 
of  the  Master  and  of  His  apostles,  His  seiit-ones, 
which  we  are,  we  must  go  in  and  come  out  in  the 
name  of  our  King.  I  do  not  mean  that  we  are 
to  go  simply  on  the  Every-Member-Canvass  for 
funds.  That  is  certainly  our  prerogative.  I 
mean  that  we  shall  make  it  a  central  thing  in  our 
daily  program  of  life  to  visit  in  spiritual  attitude 
and  with  spiritual  design  our  brothers  and  sisters 
of  the  Church  and  of  the  parish. 

And  the  minister — what  is  he  to  do  ?     He  is  to 
preach,  but  not  wholly.     He  is  to  visit,  but  not 
wholly.     He   is   to   be  a  layman- 
It  wni  Also  Train     ^^^j^^^      Even  his  preaching  and 
AH  for  Service  ^         i     .        i 

visitation  work  will  look  m  that 

direction.  For  his  chief  objective  will  be  to  train 
his  membership  for  Kingdom-service.  He  will 
not  do  the  work  of  training  wholly  any  more 


ITS  PRINQPLES  33 

than  he  will  be  expected  to  do  all  the  work  of 
preaching  or  visitation,  but  he  will  initiate  plans 
to  have  it  done  and  see  that  the  plans  are  worked. 
Ours  is  the  day  of  enlistments.  Life-recruits  are 
being  called  for  on  every  hand.  And  all  Chris- 
tians must  volunteer.  There  must  be  not  the 
selective  draft,  but  universal  conscription,  and  no 
pleas  for  exemption  will  be  tolerated.  Every 
slacker  in  the  Kingdom's  army  is  a  traitor.  His 
penalty  is  death,  soul-death,  the  loss  of  his  love 
for  God.  God  will  not  cease  to  love  him,  but  he 
will  cease  to  love  God  unless  he  gives  his 
brother  man  part  in  the  good  he  enjoys.  This 
is  not  my  doctrine.  It  is  Scripture.  Hear  the 
Spirit  speaking  in  accent  clear  and  earnest  in 
I  John  3:16-17:  *'We  know  what  love  is 
through  Christ's  having  laid  down  His  life  on 
our  behalf,  and  in  the  same  way  we  ought  to  lay 
down  our  lives  for  our  brother  men.  But  if  any 
one  has  this  world's  goods  and  sees  his  brother 
man  in  need,  and  yet  hardens  his  heart  against 
him,  how  can  such  a  one  continue  to  love  God?" 
God  will  not  cease  to  love  him,  let  me  repeat. 
God  never  ceases  to  love  us.  But  the  man  who 
refuses  to  share  his  good  cannot  love  God,  and 
so  removes  himself  from  membership  in  the 
Kingdom. 

For  every  type  of  service  for  the  Church  or 
needed  in  the  community  there  will  accordingly 
be  training  provided.     Herein  will  the  minister 


34  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

minister  his  largest  ministry.  John  F.  Cowan 
appreciated  this  truth  and,  behold !  a  wonderful 

work  is  wrought  in  distant  Hono- 
Some  TypicaMa.       j^j^       ^^^^^  ^   ^-  ^^^  -^  ^^^ 

stances  of  This  ^^-^ 

like  a  meteor  the  Epworth  Church 

of  Cleveland  becomes  a  world  figure.  Len  G. 
Broughton  caught  a  glimpse  of  it  and  the  At- 
lanta Tabernacle  became  a  healing  institution 
for  the  sick  and  sorrowful  of  the  Southern  me- 
tropolis. A.  W.  Lightbourne  saw  it  and  the 
People's  Church  of  Dover  demonstrated  to  the 
world  how  the  Church  can  make  the  public 
school's  beneficent  ministration  possible  for  the 
children  of  the  afflicted  and  the  poor.  What  a 
glorious  time  it  will  be  when  every  minister 
everywhere  sees  his  largest  contribution  in  the 
training  of  his  forces  and  in  their  release  after 
training  as  workers  in  the  community, — for  its 
purification  ?  yes,  most  assuredly ;  but  also  for 
its  constructive  uplift  I 

And  the  laymen  and  laywomen,  the  mere 
members — what  of  us  in  this  new  era?  We  will 
And  the  Members  ^^^  ^^  mere  counters  as  in  many 
Will  Gladly  Do  places.  We  will  not  be  passive 
Their  Bit  recipients  of  blessings.     We  will 

be  dispensers  of  good.  We  will  not  love  the 
Church  primarily  and  essentially  for  what  it 
does  for  us,  but  for  what  it  enables  us  to  do  for 
others.  We  shall  not  look  upon  our  minister 
always  as  a  shepherd,  because  we  shall  be  sheep 


ITS  PRINCIPLES  35 

(I  hope)  only  in  the  sense  that  we  shall  gladly  fol- 
low our  leader.  We  will  find  our  gospel  epito- 
mized not  in  the  twenty-third  psalm,  but  in  Mat- 
thew 25,  and  James  i :  27.  When  we  are  received 
into  the  fellowship  of  the  Church,  we  will  expect 
the  minister  who  gives  us  the  hand  of  welcome 
to  inquire  certainly  as  to  whether  we  have 
heartily  and  sincerely  repented  of  our  sins, 
whether  we  believe  in  Christ  as  the  Saviour  of 
the  world  and  as  our  personal  Saviour,  whether 
we  accept  the  Scriptures  as  our  rule  of  faith  and 
practice,  whether  we  purpose  through  grace  to 
live  a  godly  life.  And  we  will  answer  all  those 
questions  affirmatively.  But  if  he  stops  there 
we  shall  be  disappointed.  We  shall  insist  that  he 
go  further  and  inquire  in  what  line  of  personal 
service  for  the  King  we  desire  then  and  there  to 
enlist.  We  will  not  be  satisfied  even  then,  for 
we  shall  expect  to  be  trained  for  our  service  in  a 
regular  army  cantonment  and  then  sent  to  the 
trenches  to  do  our  bit  to  make  the  world, — safe 
for  democracy  ?  no,  sir ;  to  make  it  safe  for 
Christian  democracy.  If  all  that  is  to  come  out 
of  this  war  is  to  be  safety  for  earthly  govern- 
ment, then  let  the  cannon  cease  to  roar  at  once 
and  furl  the  banners  of  the  battling  hosts.  Safety 
for  democracy  is  not  worth  the  price  we  are  pay- 
ing and  are  to  pay  in  the  prosecution  of  this  war, 
but  safety  for  Christian  democracy,  for  the 
Brotherhood    of   Man,    founded   solidly   on   the 


36  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

Fatherhood  of  God — this  is  our  slogan,  our  con- 
suming purpose,  and  for  its  realization  we  are 
enlisted  not  tor  the  period  of  the  war,  but  for  life. 
We  will  not  be  content  to  do  our  bit ;  we  will  do 
our  utmost  for  this  cause.  We  have  the  militant 
spirit,  but  we  are  not  militaristic.  We  do  not 
wish  to  convert  men  by  Mauser  rifles  and  thir- 
teen inch  guns.  We  wish  to  win  them  by  deeds 
of  mercy,  love,  and  service  to  the  fellowship  with 
the  King,  which  to  us  is  so  precious  and  in- 
vigorating and  satisfying  of  the  nobler  aspira- 
tions of  our  souls.  We  are  looking  for  the 
Church  with  a  purpose  to  match  our  own  and 
for  the  minister  with  the  wisdom  to  direct  us  to 
happy  fruitage  in  our  Christian  life.  And  we 
shall  not  be  disappointed.  We  shall  find  them 
both,  and  we  three,  triune  but  one,  shall  con- 
stitute the  noble  Trinity  of  the  Kingdom's 
triumphant,  onward,  upward  sweep. 

What  I  have  been  pleading  for  will  neces- 
sitate a  new  conception  of  salvation.  Soul-sav- 
These  Considerations  i^g  ^as  been  held  up  as  the  fun- 
Involve  a  New  Con=  damental  purpose  of  the  Church, 
ception  of  Salvation  the  basic  cause  of  its  existence, 
and  enrollment  as  a  church  member  accepted  as 
a  certificate  of  its  genuineness,  till  salvation  has 
become  to  be  regarded  as  an  individual  and 
once-for-all  affair.  A  radical  reawakening  must 
be  had.  Salvation  is  personal  and  individual. 
We  can  never  get  away  from  the  necessity  for 


ITS  PRINCIPLES  37 

the  new  birth.  Reformation  will  not  save.  Join- 
ing the  Social  Reform  Movement  will  not  save. 
Connecting  one's  self  with  the  Church  will  not 
save.  The  solemn  truth  proclaimed  by  night  to 
Nicodemus  yet  stands  over  the  entrance  way  to 
salvation  :  "  Ye  must  be  born  again."  Men  can- 
not be  educated,  legislated,  socialized,  culturated 
into  the  Kingdom.  They  must  be  born  into  it. 
It  is  an  individual  and  a  personal  matter.  But 
after  birth  there  is  growth.  We  are  but  babes 
in  Christ  when  we  first  accept  His  grace.  Many 
never  advance  beyond  the  stage  of  babyhood  in 
their  Christian  salvation,  and  though  they  claim 
to  have  been  Christians  for  fifty,  sixty,  seventy 
years,  they  are  still  in  their  swaddling  clothes  and 
can  digest  only  the  sincere  milk  of  the  Word. 

There  is  no  such  thing  as  a  once-for-all  salva- 
tion. We  are  saved  constantly  and  constantly  in 
For  Salvation  is  danger  of  losing  our  citizenship 
an  Unfolding,  Con=  in  the  Kingdom.  Salvation  is 
stant  Process  jjj^g  ^^^  manna  in  the  wilderness. 

We  get  a  supply  for  each  day  only.  We  cannot 
store  it.  Stored  salvation  soon  becomes  putrid. 
Perhaps  that  is  why  so  many  Christians  wear  a 
long  face  and  cannot  smile.  Perhaps  that  is 
why  gloom  and  religion  are  counted  twin  sisters. 
Perhaps  that  is  why  the  minister,  the  Church, 
and  the  undertaker  constitute  in  many  minds  a 
solemn  trinity,  exemplifying  religion  as  the 
peculiar  prerogative  of  the  dead  and  dying,  but 


38  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

powerless  among  the  living  and  the  alive.  God 
is  the  God  of  the  living,  not  of  the  dead.  The 
new  conception  of  salvation  must  make  this  fun- 
damentally plain,  unmistakably  evident.  And 
when  this  has  been  done,  it  will  be  seen  that 
salvation  is  not  a  railroad  ticket  through  to  the 
Grand  Central  Depot  of  Heaven  with  sleeping 
and  dining  car  reservations  provided  without 
money  and  without  price.  Salvation  is  a 
shibboleth,  admitting  to  the  Lord's  army.  It  is 
a  passport  into  a  country  needing  vaHant  effort 
to  win  it  for  Christ.  Salvation  is  a  testimonial 
that  the  one  professing  it  is  being  daily  saved. 
We  must  work  out  our  salvation  with  fear  and 
trembling,  lest  while  we  endeavor  to  bring  the 
peace  of  God  to  our  brother  men  we  lose  our  own 
souls.  Salvation  is  growth  in  grace.  It  is  the 
progressive  realization  of  Christ  in  the  life.  Each 
advanced  step  brings  new  joy,  new  vistas  of 
entrancing  beauty.  The  way  grows  sweeter  as 
we  march  to  the  martial  music  of  the  King.  But 
those  who  fail  to  march  fail  to  hear  the  music  ere 
long  and  the  path  becomes  foul  about  them 
with  noxious  weeds  and  hissing  with  serpents' 
tongues.  We  must  acquire  more  grace,  or  lose 
the  grace  we  have.  We  are  not  the  same  to-day 
we  were  a  year  ago.  We  are  better  Christians 
or  worse.  The  essence  of  our  salvation,  its  allur- 
ing charm,  is  not  in  its  being,  but  in  its  bcco^n- 
ing.     Salvation  is  dynamic,  not  static,  and  both 


ITS  PRINCIPLES  39 

potential  and  kinetic.     It  is  useful  and  usable  at 
once. 

Salvation  is  also  social.     Bunyan's  **  Pilgrim's 
Progress,"  with  its  intense  insistence  on  personal 

salvation,  did  not  escape  criticism 
loi^rsocTa'l        in  its  own  day.     So  its  sequel  was 

written.  Social  salvation  is  the 
sequel  of  the  individual  variety  of  which  we  hear 
so  much.  Let  us  repeat  that  we  shall  never  get 
away  from  the  need  of  personal  redemption. 
That  is  fundamental,  we  have  said,  but  we  also 
urge  that  personal  salvation  cannot  be  complete 
in  an  unchristianized  social  order.  Society  too 
must  be  Christianized  and  all  its  institutions. 
The  modern  Good  Samaritan  does  more  than 
give  relief  to  the  injured  Jew.  He  cleans  up  the 
country  from  Jerusalem  to  Jericho  and  renders  it 
safe  for  all  future  travellers.  It  is  useless,  almost 
useless,  to  convert  men  from  their  sins,  and  then 
permit  licensed  vice  to  flaunt  its  red-flag  of 
challenge  in  their  faces.  The  saloon  is  doomed. 
The  brothel  is  doomed.  Tobacco  is  doomed. 
Dope  is  doomed.  Every  evil  in  our  social  order 
is  under  sentence  of  death.  They  may  evade 
the  execution  of  the  penalty  a  few  years  or  a  few 
centuries,  but  death  inevitably  awaits  them. 
And  many  things  we  now  regard  with  com- 
placency must  go  too.  The  unsanitary  tenement 
house  must  go.  Enforced  idleness  must  go. 
Too  long  hours  and  too  dangerous  occupations 


40  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

must  go.  A  more  equal  division  of  the  wealth 
created  by  labor  must  be  had.  Little  children 
and  mothers  must  be  protected.  Justice,  right- 
eousness, the  old  demand  of  the  Hebrew  prophets 
for  MiSHPAT,  must  be  enthroned.  Politics  must 
be  purified  and  kept  pure.  All  this  is  social 
salvation.  Let  me  speak  my  heart,  all  this  is  the 
salvation  Jesus  came  to  bring.  Anything  less 
than  this  is  not  His  Kingdom  in  its  fullness. 
The  method  by  which  it  is  to  be  wrought — 
men  who  are  being  saved  in  the  process  of  its 
development  will  discern.  But  it  will  be  done. 
The  social  order  must  be,  will  be  Christianized. 

And  this  new  conception  of  the  Church  in- 
volves also  an  enlarged,  an  enlarging  notion  of 
A  New  Conception  Christian  service.  It  will  not  sat- 
of  Christian  Service  isfy  the  members  of  the  modern 
is  Also  Involved  Church  to  put  them  to  selling 
tickets  to  a  church  entertainment  or  to  waiting 
on  the  table  at  some  church  supper.  The  Church 
is  the  community's  center.  That  is  how  pro- 
gressive Christians  esteem  it  to-day,  and  they 
insist  that  it  shall  meet  its  obligation  with  a 
program  of  service  covering  all  of  life.  The 
modern  Christian  does  not  depreciate  faith.  But 
he  like  James  wishes  to  see  it  exemplified  in 
works.  He  cares  not  so  much  for  creeds,  as  he 
does  for  deeds.  He  can  hardly  with  charity  ap- 
praise the  intellectual  squabbles  of  the  theologues 
as  to  what  this  passage  means  or  that,  when  the 


ITS  PRINCIPLES  4J 

demands  for  service  are  so  insistent  all  around. 
He  has  little  patience  with  those  who  insist  on 
the  constant  study  of  the  theological  calculus. 
Dogma  he  conceives  has  vampired  the  Church's 
energy,  consumed  its  vital  power.  If  a  man 
accepts  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  the  twenty- 
fifth  of  Matthew,  and  James  with  John  3  :  16,  he 
will  extend  to  him  full  fellowship  and  never  raise 
the  question  as  to  his  mode  of  baptism  or  his 
conception  of  the  atonement.  Td  6/ioto-ou<Ttov  and 
To  oixo-ouGtov  have  lost  their  power  to  command 
his  concern.  He  reads  of  heresy  trials  in  church 
history  with  mingled  pity  and  aversion.  He 
does  not  recall  but  one  person  who  went  away 
from  Christ  sorrowful,  and  that  man  left  not  be- 
cause he  could  not  believe.  He  had  believed 
all  his  life.  He  went  away  sorrowful  because  he 
was  not  willing  to  do  his  Christian  bit.  We 
want  less  talk  of  heretics  from  the  standpoint  of 
belief  and  more  unsparing  definiteness  in  point- 
ing out  the  heresy  of  inactivity,  of  failure  to  do 
full  Christian  duty. 

This  spirit  of  service  will  not  be  satisfied  by 
giving  relief  to  the  poor  and  the  afflicted.  A 
Service,  That  in=       nian  needs  spiritual  comfort  when 

dudes  All  of  Man  he  is  poverty-stricken  and  sick 
and  Every  Maa  ^^^^^^       g^^    ^^^^    ^^^    ^^^^   ^^_ 

ligion  only  when  he  is  sick  or  down-and-out? 
Is  that  what  it  is  for  ?  Is  it  not  rather  pregnant 
with   helpfulness   also   for  the  strong,  vigorous 


42  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

man,  or  woman,  and  for  the  joyful  young  of  the 
land  ?  Assuredly,  and  the  modern  Christian 
wishes  it  to  launch  its  program  with  width 
enough  to  include  all  men  of  every  station  and 
condition.  The  itp-and-out  needs  spiritual  min- 
istration as  much  so  as  the  down-and-out.  Suffer- 
ing will  be  relieved,  broken  hearts  will  be  bound 
up,  those  who  sit  in  darkness  must  see  the  light — 
great  and  Christlike  all  of  this.  But  it  is  also 
Christlike  to  provide  social,  recreational,  and 
amusement  service.  My  heart  goes  out  to  the 
young  people  of  our  rural  communities.  The  old 
social  times  are  gone.  There  are  few  oppor- 
tunities, and  they  are  becoming  fewer,  for  whole- 
some social  intercourse.  The  dance  is  under 
religious  ban.  The  lawn  parties  are  improperly 
linked  with  hope  of  financial  gain.  When  they 
meet  on  the  church  grounds  for  an  all-day 
service,  if  they  remain  outside  for  the  afternoon, 
the  older  heads  pronounce  anathemas.  I  excuse 
them  for  it.  Social  intercourse  is  needful. 
Courting  must  be  done.  I  excuse  them  for  it, 
till  the  Church  provides  in  her  parish  or  com- 
munity house  the  opportunity  for  such  inter- 
course during  the  week  under  proper  supervision. 
The  future  Church  will  have  its  church  house  and 
Sunday-school  building,  for  the  most  part  under 
one  roof,  for  worship  and  instruction,  its  home 
hard-by  for  its  minister,  and  its  parish  house  for 
its  week-day  activities.     It  will  provide  athletic 


ITS  PRINQPLES  43 

grounds  and  a  gymnasium.  It  will  provide 
lectures  and  movies  and  wholesome  amusements. 
It  will  provide  these  things  not  in  a  patronizing 
spirit,  nor  as  an  indulgence  to  human  weakness, 
but  as  a  divine  right,  as  satisfying  an  element  of 
life  necessary  to  make  a  man  really  and  truly  a 
man.  It  will  hang  this  motto  on  its  walls  and 
embody  it  in  its  gospel  of  service  :  "  We  can 
serve  God  when  we  play  as  well  as  when  we 
pray,  and  we  will."  The  curse  of  our  amuse- 
ment life  is  that  it  is  commercialized.  The  curse 
of  our  social  life  is  that  it  is  unsocial.  The 
modern  Church  will  surely  remedy  both  evils. 
The  Church  has  in  the  past  contented  itself  with 
denouncing  the  evils  of  our  amusement  and  social 
life.  It  will  continue  to  do  that,  but  it  will  also 
enter  the  field  with  a  constructive,  positive  pro- 
gram of  things  to  be  done.  Thus  will  it  be  a  com- 
munity-builder^  and  not  merely  a  commttnity-scold. 
And  finally  the  spirit  of  sacrifice  will  be  found 
in  the  Church,  in  its  ministry,  in  its  membership. 
And  the  Duty  of  This  spirit  of  sacrifice  will  not  be 
Sacrifice  Will  Content  with  parting  with  material 

Be  Magnified  possessions   in  the  effort  to  pal- 

Necessarily 

liate  the  sufferings  of  others.     We 

must  share — that  is  the  Scriptural  standard.  We 
must  sympathize,  suffer  with  our  brothers — that 
is  its  exaction.  We  must  enter  into  the  fellow- 
ship of  the  sufferings  of  Christ.  We  must  fill  out 
His    sufferings.     We    must    pass    through    our 


U  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

Gethsemane  and  to  our  Calvary.  We  must  also 
be  raised  from  the  dead,  if  we  are  to  experience 
the  Pentecostal  blessing  in  our  life.  It  is  no 
ease-loving,  luxury-seeking  thing  to  live  the 
Christian  life  in  this  new  time.  It  is  joyful,  but 
it  is  joy  shot  through  with  suffering.  Pain  is 
there.  Anguish  is  there.  Agony  is  there.  How 
strange  to  hear  these  things  with  reference  to 
the  Christian  religion  I  It  is  seldom  they  are 
proclaimed.  Yet  there  is  the  ministry  of  suffer- 
ing, the  sanctification  to  be  had  only  in  filling 
out  the  sorrows  of  the  Christ.  The  central  place 
of  suffering  in  the  Christian  life  is  visibly  and 
impressively  emphasized  in  the  memorial  the 
Master  provided  for  Himself — the  Holy  Com- 
munion. We  are  to  show  forth  His  sufferings 
in  that  solemn  feast,  and  are  from  it  to  gain  the 
will  and  the  strength  to  suffer  with  Him.  Those 
of  us  who  heard  Jowett  in  Washington  when  the 
War  Congress  of  the  Federal  Council  was  in 
solemn  session  in  May,  191 7,  will  never  forget 
his  noble  plea  for  the  place  of  sufiFering  in  Chris- 
tian experience.  The  Church  has  trusted  to 
organization,  he  declared,  but  the  Bible  way  is 
through  agony.  What  a  pity  that  the  real  force 
of  Paul's  words  to  Timothy  is  lost  in  our  Au- 
thorized Version,  which  makes  him  say  ''  I  have 
fought  a  good  fight,''  when  what  Paul  really 
said  was  **/  have  agonized  a  great  agony  .f' 
The  words   organize   and   organization  are  not 


ITS  PRINCIPLES  45 

Scriptural  words,  and  our  translators  have  all 
but  taken  from  Scripture  the  heart-doctrine 
couched  in  that  magnificent  word  agony.  The 
original  Greek  has  preserved  it  and  we  are 
grateful  for  that.  Agonize,  agonize^  AGONIZE — 
that  is  what  we  need.  Our  hearts  must  bleed  in 
love  for  our  fellows — that  is  our  duty  ;  nay,  it  is 
our  privilege  in  this  new  time.  This  world-war 
will  teach  us  to  suffer.  As  teaching  us  such  we, 
I  mean  the  Christians  of  America,  needed  to 
enter  it.  It  would  have  been  a  pity  if  we  had 
not.  And  when  we  come  back  from  it,  flushed 
with  victory  as  assuredly  we  shall,  we  will  have 
gone  down  into  the  depths  and  through  the  dark 
valley  of  suffering  to  our  national  and  personal 
salvation.  And  from  this  cataclysmic  experi- 
ence, this  maelstrom  of  blood  and  death,  the 
Church  of  God  will  arise,  resplendent,  glorified, 
and  sanctified,  because  she  shall  in  suffering  and 
in  tears  have  learned  how  to  agonize  in  heart 
for  the  opening  of  the  windows  of  heaven  and 
the  outpouring  of  blessings  upon  suffering  men, 
her  fellow-sufferers. 

Such  is  the  personnel  and  the  spirit  of  the  new 
Church  for  the  new  time.  This  Church  will 
Such  are  the  meet  the  hopes  and  aspirations  of 

Principles  of  the  new  time  with  a  full  gospel, 

the  New  Church  Su^h  a  Church  we  need,  we  must 
have.  It  is  Christ's  will  that  we  should.  The 
Holy  Spirit  is  urging  us  with  unutterable  groan- 


46  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

ings  to  establish  it.  God  helping  us,  we  will 
found  it  solidly  and  make  it  central  in  service  to 
Him  and  brother  man.  Evangelism,  missions, 
social  service  shall  be  the  rallying  standards  of 
this  new  Church  in  the  new  time.  Evangelism 
that  shall  save,  missions  that  shall  win  to  Christ, 
social  service  that  shall  bless  him  who  receives, 
but  even  more  him  who  ministers — these  three 
shall  be  the  shibboleths,  the  moving  spirits,  the 
three  in  one,  of  the  blessed  day  of  the  Lord  and 
of  His  Kingdom  come,  through  His  Church, 
among  men. 


II 

ITS  GOSPEL 

OURS  is  the  Brotherhood  age.  The  social 
hour  has  struck.  The  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  has  prepared  the  land  and  ten- 
derly cultivated  the  crop.  The  Church  is  entitled 
to  gather  the  harvest.  We  look  in  vain  for  a  con- 
The  Gospel  of  ception  of  Brotherhood  in  lands 

the  New  Time  where  the  Gospel  of  Christ  is  un- 

Wiii  Be  Social  known  or  slightly  known.  There 
are  splendid  gems  of  sacred  truth  trenchantly 
expressed  to  be  found  in  the  literatures  of  the 
non-Christian  religions.  Many  of  them  rise  even 
to  Christian  standards  of  beauty  and  excellency 
But  there  is  nothing  in  any  sacred  literature 
other  than  the  Christian  so  splendid  as  this 
nugget  of  social  solidarity  taken  from  our  Scrip- 
tures :  "  We  are  members  one  of  another," 
and  this  glistening  boulder  of  purest  lustre : 
"  One  is  your  Master,  even  Christ,  and  all  ye 
are  brethren."  These  two  are  the  essence  of  the 
social  gospel.  If  we  had  only  these  verses  left 
us,  we  should  be  able  with  them  to  convict  the 
world  of  sin  and  to  usher  in  the  Kingdom  of  our 

47 


48  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

Christ.  But  these  are  not  merely  proof  texts 
taken  away  from  their  context.  They  are  the 
natural  flowers  of  the  whole  plan  of  Christian 
salvation.  The  Gospel  is  first,  last,  and  ever 
social. 

The  social  gospel — it  is  no  new  gospel,  but  the 
gospel  with  a  new  emphasis.  It  is  not  a  new 
Which  is  the  Old  gospel,  but  the  gospel  with  a  new 
Gospel  With  a  application.     Human  personality 

New  Emphasis         ^^^g  ^^^  j^g^  j^g  dignity  in  the 

lime-light  of  this  new-birth  of  Brotherhood.  Hu- 
man personality  is  by  it  recognized  to  be  a  social 
thing.  No  personality  it  proclaims  can  be  de- 
veloped in  hermitage.  In  the  purifying  process 
of  association  with  our  brothers  our  personality 
ripens,  attains  its  loveliness  and  proportion. 
The  social  gospel  does  not  discount  the  necessity 
for  the  individual  new  birth.  It  insists  that  a 
man  had  better  not  be  born  spiritually  at  all  un- 
less his  advent  into  the  Kingdom  be  conceived 
in  the  spirit  of  Calvary  and  the  scene  at  the  foot- 
hill of  the  Transfiguration  Mount.  Its  favorite 
hymns  are  not  "  Jesus  Paid  It  All "  and  *'  Salva- 
tion Is  Free,"  but  "Jesus,  I  My  Cross  Have 
Taken  "  and  "  Saved  to  Serve."  Sacrifice  and 
service — these  are  the  pregnant  words  of  its 
vocabulary,  joyous  sacrifice,  loving  service, 
self-effacing,  fellowman-blessing,  Christ-exalt- 
ing,— such  is  the  pulsing  heart  of  the  social 
gospel. 


ITS  GOSPEL  49 

The  social  gospel  recognizes  the  folly  of  the 
mere  reformer  on  a  social  crusade  of  relief  for  **  the- 
It  Differs  down-and-outs."     It  fully  grants 

Vitally  from  that  men's  physical  needs  and  in- 

Social  Reform  tellectual  desires  may  be  satisfied 

by  the  social  settlements  and  the  public  charities 
and  libraries.  But  relief  to  be  restorative  must 
touch  the  heart  and  quicken  it  to  newness  of  life. 
That  quickening  touch  the  social  gospel  knows 
can  be  found  only  in  personal  contact  with  Jesus 
Christ,  and  so  while  it  pours  in  the  healing  oil  for 
the  body  and  provides  for  the  liberating  of  the 
mind,  it  applies  the  magnetism  of  the  Spirit  that 
the  heart's  blood  may  circulate  in  life-giving, 
vitalizing  streams  till  the  man  is  made  **a  new 
creature  in  Christ  Jesus."  It  gives  cups  of  cold 
water,  but  does  it  in  His  Name,  and  the  water 
thus  given  not  only  slakes  the  thirst,  it  restores 
the  soul.  The  social  gospel  restores  the  soul, 
and  no  other  sort  of  relief  or  amelioration  can. 
The  new  Church  will  recognize  that  the  world  for 
its  heart-sickness  and  distressing  degeneracy 
needs  not  so  much  social  therapeutics  as  social 
bacteriology  and  social  hygiene. 

It  will  be  profitable  to  pursue  this  contrast 
further.  The  social  gospel  has  one  conception 
of  how  man  is  to  be  redeemed.  The  social 
reformer  has  another.  The  latter  is  from  ^/le- 
witJioiit-in  process.  The  former  is  the-zuithin-out 
method.     Both  diagnose  the  case  properly.     The 


50  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

sore,  the  open  sore,  is  there  and  both  want  to  cure 
it.     The  social  reformer  applies  cooling  cloths  and 

salves  and  provides  a  quiet  resting 
It  is  Based  on  a  i         r       ^u  re  t-u  •    i 

Heart-Experience       P^^^^  ^°^  ^^^  sufferer.     The  social 

gospel  gives  the  patient  a  tonic  to 
build  up  his  system  and  purify  his  blood.  In 
both  cases  the  sore  is  removed,  but  in  the  former 
process  it  is  only  driven  in  and  will  shortly  at- 
tack some  other  portion  of  the  sufferer's  body. 
He  is  relieved,  but  not  cured.  The  gospel  cures, 
restores,  revitalizes,  makes  the  man  anew.  The 
social  reform  program  is  one  of  reforjnatio7i.  The 
social  gospel  is  committed  to  preformation.  It  is 
superior  because  it  foiniis  and  renders  reforjn 
needless.  The  social  reformer  would  take  away 
the  sore.  The  social  gospel  worker,  to  be  sure, 
would  subtract,  but  he  would  also  add,  add  that 
which  is  of  priceless  value,  a  self- cleansing  power 
within  the  man,  even  the  Spirit  of  Christ.  Once 
more,  the  social  reformer  would  elirninate  the 
trouble.  The  social  gospel  will  redeem  the  whole 
man.  Between  these  two  there  can  be  but  one 
choice.  Those  who  elect  the  lesser  work  do  so 
because  their  vision  is  blurred.  We  who  have 
embraced  the  complete  program  will  praise  them 
for  their  works  and  gently  show  unto  them  the 
**  more  excellent  way." 

The  social  gospel  cannot  be  satisfied  by  proxy 
efforts.  No  hireling  can  perform  its  sacred  task. 
In  the  program  of  the  Master  no  substitutes  are 


ITS  GOSPEL  5t 

accepted.  It  employs,  we  have  said,  not  the  se- 
lective draft,  but  universal  conscription.  All  must 
And  Can  Be  Satis-  enroll.  Nor  can  exemption  be 
fied  Only  by  granted  to  any  man.     It  is  uni- 

Personal  Devotion  yersal  service  that  is  required  and 
all  who  slack  must  face  the  firing  squad,  must 
lose  their  souls.  Is  this  sentence  harsh  ?  To  the 
uninitiated  it  appears  so,  but  to  the  man  in  the 
trenches  where  the  rattling  muskets  and  the 
mighty  engines  of  death  belch  out  destruction,  it 
is  a  joyous  service.  He  is  fighting  to  make  the 
race  of  men,  created  in  God's  own  likeness,  fit  to 
be  citizens  of  a  spiritual  democracy,  and,  God 
helping  him,  he  can  only  fight.  Let  no  man 
think  to  escape  serving  personally  in  the  trenches. 
Let  no  man  think  he  can  do  his  bit  by  chiving  his 
money.  Far  too  little  money  is  gi-  :..  we  all 
know.  We  are  but  beginning  to  glimpse  the 
meaning  of  Christian  stewardship.  We  have  not 
even  sensed  the  principles  of  Christian  trustee- 
ship. Our  money  must  be  given,  but  we  must 
give  ourselves  too  and  first.  We  must  imbibe 
Sir  Launfal's  later  spirit  and,  when  we  do,  we 
shall  meet  Jesus  in  leprous  beggars  and  tattered 
children  and  wasted  forms  of  men  and  women 
everywhere.  Our  service  then  will  be  heaven- 
blessed  for  ourselves  and  for  those  we  serve.  We 
must  first  give  ourselves  to  the  Lord,  and  then 
our  poverty  will  abound  in  riches  of  liberality  to 
our  brother  men  for  His  sake.     Then  it  will  cease 


52  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

to  be  a  question,  as  it  now  is,  when  a  man  of  the 
Church  begins  to  get  rich,  whether  God  will  gain 
a  fortune  or  lose  a  soul.  The  rich  man  must  send 
his  money  on  ahead  to  pave  the  streets  of  the 
New  Jerusalem  or  he  will  never  enter  that  holy 
place.  We  will  either  walk  on  our  gold  sent  on 
before  us  into  the  next  life,  or  our  money  will 
melt  with  us  in  the  pit  of  fire  over  there.  This  is 
plain  talk,  but  plain  talk  is  what  the  Church 
needs  in  this  hour. 

The  social  gospel  is  not  theological,  but  serval. 
In  the  spirit  of  the  Last  Judgment,  it  rates  men 
It  Is  Not  iiot  by  their  beliefs,  but  by  their 

Theological,  service.     In  the  spirit  of  James, 

But  Serval  ^j^o  was  the  Lord's  brother  and 

knew  bv  intimate  association  the  Lord's  desire 
for  H>.  llowers,  it  will  show  its  faith  by  its 
works,  for  faith  without  works  is  dead.  The 
social  gospel  scans  the  membership  of  the  Chris- 
tian churches  to-day,  and  it  can  but  pronounce 
the  most  of  them  as  having  been  either  abor- 
tions or  still-born.  What  a  pity  !  Six  hundred 
million  Christians  practically  powerless  in  the 
face  of  a  world  of  sin.  The  dried  bones  need 
flesh.  But  where  is  the  prophet  to  startle  them 
into  a  realization  of  their  barrenness  and  to 
breathe  into  them  the  breath  of  life  ?  With  a 
world  on  fire  and  the  water  of  salvation  freely  at 
hand  and  with  the  means  of  its  application  en- 
tirely committed  to  it,  has  the  Church  in  our  day 


ITS  GOSPEL  53 

any  right  to  while  its  time  away  in  manicuring 
theology?  Our  theology,  we  confess  it  to  our 
shame,  has  been  more  often  voluminous  than 
luminous.  We  have  insisted  on  dogma  to  the 
depletion  of  our  vital  energy, — dogma  with  the 
accent  on  dog.  This  day  calls  for  doer-logties, 
not  for  theologues.  It  is  the  hour  of  deedists^  not 
of  creedists.  Do  not  misunderstand  me.  We 
are  not  to  turn  our  back  on  the  Bible.  That  is 
our  spiritual  meat.  But  we  are  to  turn  our  back 
on  the  dialogues  of  the  theologues  in  their 
labyrinthine  Scriptural  interpretations.  If  a 
man  accepts  Jesus  as  his  Captain  and  the  Bible 
as  the  revelation  of  His  will  and  embraces  the 
program  of  the  life  Jesus  taught,  then  we  shall 
give  him  the  glad  hand  of  fellowship  and  bid 
him  Godspeed  in  his  service  to  his  fellows.  The 
shibboleths  of  his  faith  are  his,  and  they  will  pass 
with  him  into  heaven  or  having  served  their 
usefulness  be  shed  when  he  is  translated,  and  so 
they  need  not,  they  shall  not,  disturb  his  standing 
with  us.  We  tire  in  this  time  of  men's  merely 
telling  how  great  things  the  Lord  has  done  for 
them.  We  want  them  to  complete  the  record, 
and  tell  us  how  much  they  have  done  for  their 
fellows.  And  we  shall  discount  their  testimony 
as  to  what  the  Lord  has  done  for  them  just  one 
hundred  per  cent.,  unless,  unless  we  shall  see  the 
proof  that  the  Lord  did  it  for  them  in  their  daily 
lives.     For  men  have  been  mistaken  in  regard  to 


54  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

their  relationship  to  the  Lord.  Nor  have  we 
overlooked  in  our  zeal  for  service  that  gracious 
truth  splendidly  stated  in  John  6  :  29 :  **  This  is 
the  work  of  God,  that  ye  believe  on  him  whom 
he  hath  sent.'*  We  of  the  social  gospel  team 
accept  that  truth.  It  is  fundamental.  And  we 
also  accept  as  explanatory  of  this  truth  John 
6:44:  "No  man  can  come  to  me,  except  the 
Father  which  hath  sent  me  draw  him."  That  is 
where  our  work  comes  in.  It  is  God's  work  that 
we  believe.  It  is  our  work  to  bring  others  to 
believe.  And  **  believe  "  means  to  us,  not  mere 
intellectual  assent  to  truth,  but  a  dynamic  ac- 
ceptance of  obligation  to  realize  in  the  world  the 
proper  fruiting  of  the  program  of  service  and  up- 
lift based  on  that  belief.  Our  faith  is  intellectual, 
spiritual,  and  at  the  same  time  tremendously  vital 
and  active.  The  social  gospel  is  to  the  individual 
gospel  of  personal  salvation  as  the  cipher  to  the 
digits  of  the  numeral  system,  valueless  alone, 
adding  nothing  if  placed  before,  but  tremendously 
multiplying  its  value  if  placed  after  it,  where  it 
properly  belongs. 

The  social  gospel  has  a  new  meaning  for 
salvation  too.  It  repudiates  the  notion  that 
It  Teaches  Salva-  salvation  is  for  safety  alone  as  un- 
tlon,  Not  for  Safety,  satisfying  and  as  essentially  selfish. 
But  for  Service  j^  proclaims  a  new  evangel — the 
evangel  of  salvation  for  service.  Religion  to  it  is 
no  fire-escape  to  keep  a  man  from  hell.    Salvation 


ITS  GOSPEL  55 

it  views  as  a  progressive  process  and  religion  as 
its  nurturing,  sustaining  bread  of  life.  It  boldly 
announces  that  salvation's  only  value  is  in  use. 
If  stored,  it  spoils.  The  Revised  Version  has  it 
much  better  when  it  tells  us  "  The  Holy  Spirit 
added  daily  to  the  churches  such  as  were  being 
saved."  I  am  not  so  sure  but  that  the  more 
nearly  correct  rendering  would  be  "  such  as  were 
being  daily  saved."  We  have  heard  it  said  of 
old,  **  Save  the  child  and  the  man  will  take  care 
of  himself,"  but  I  say  unto  you,  in  the  message 
of  the  social  gospel,  *'Save  the  child  and  save 
him  daily  that,  when  manhood  is  reached,  the 
continuous  new  birth  of  the  Spirit  will  be  as 
normal  and  natural  as  the  daily  new  rising  of 
the  sun."  This  is  to  grow  in  grace.  The  surest 
way  of  such  growth  is  to  share  its  joy.  Only 
as  we  give  our  salvation  away  can  we  keep 
it.  Only  as  we  share  our  religion  with  our 
brother  men  can  we  escape  the  cobwebs  of 
skepticism  and  unbelief.  **  I  am  all  troubled 
with  doubts,"  a  young  assistant  pastor  is  reputed 
to  have  said  to  Dr.  Charles  L.  Goodell.  **  Go 
out  and  win  a  soul  to-day,  leaving  off  your 
sermon-preparation,"  prescribed  the  great  soul- 
winner.  The  younger  man  preached  his  greatest 
sermon  the  next  Sunday.  Doubts  do  not  trouble 
the  man  who  uses  his  religion.  He  has  proof 
indisputable  of  the  ef^cacy  of  salvation,  and  no 
slime  of  infidelity  can  befoul  his  souL     "  Religion 


56  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

in  action"— that  is  the  slogan  of  the  social 
gospel.  And  those  of  us  who  have  caught  the 
spirit  of  this  gospel  will  never  rest  till  it  purifies 
the  social  and  societal  life  of  the  whole  world. 
Personal  salvation  we  shall  never  lose  sight  of, 
but  social  salvation  is  our  passion  too.  The 
social  order  must  be  Christianized  and  we  are 
committed  with  a  martyr's  devotion  to  its  pro- 
gressive realization. 

The  social  gospel,  too,  like  the  man  on  Patmos, 
has  somewhat  to  say  to  the  churches.  It  is  anx- 
And  Has  a  Severe  ^^"^  *^^*  ^^^  churches,  which,  as 
Message  for  the        we  have  already  said,  have  sown 

Present-Day  the  seed  and  tenderly  cultivated 

Churches  ,,  in, 

the   crop,   shall   also   garner  the 

grain  of  the  Kingdom.     But  they  may  not.     For 

the  social  gospel  hears  the  muttering  discontent 

of  the  men  in  the  churches  with  the  slowness  of 

the  Church  to  crucify  itself  for  the  world.     It  also 

hears  the  ominous  denunciations  of  the  Church 

by  the  men  on  the  outside — the  men  who  believe 

in  our  Brotherhood  doctrine,  but  fail  to  see  its 

exemplification  in  the  churches'  program  in  our 

day.     These  critics  of  the  Church  we  have  seen 

openly  accept  Jesus  as  the  concrete  illustration 

of  their  creed  of  life.     They  hate  and  execrate 

the  Church  that  professes  to  embody  His  Spirit 

in  organic  form.     They  say,  as  we  have  shown, 

that  the  Church  is  for  the  rich  and  the  well-to-do. 

That  the  poor  man  is  given  a  back-seat  or  placed 


ITS  GOSPEL  57 

in  the  gallery.  That  the  Church  is  for  the  classes 
as  against  the  masses.  That  the  Church  is  more 
bent  on  perpetuating  its  own  life  than  on  giving 
itself  in  sacrifice.  That  services  rather  than 
service  hold  the  central  place  in  its  program. 
We  are  not  saying  these  men  are  right.  We 
think  they  are  wrong.  We  know  they  are  wrong. 
But  we  must  win  these  men,  or  the  Church  shall 
suffer.  And  we  can  win  them  only  by  love,  by 
sacrifice,  by  service,  by  giving  the  Church  in 
loving  consecration  to  ministering  to  them.  We 
must  show  these  brothers  that  they  need  salva- 
tion as  well  as  an  improved  social  environment 
and  that  we  are  determined  as  Christians  to  give 
them  both.  These  men  have  mistaken  soup  and 
soap  for  salvation.  We  must  in  the  new  day 
minister  to  man's  physical  needs  and  bodily  com- 
fort, but  not  think  that  is  their  salvation.  We 
may  not  be  able  to  convert  a  man  whose  feet  are 
cold,  but  warming  his  feet  will  not  save  his  soul, 
though  there  be  those  who  teach  it.  The  situa- 
tion that  confronts  the  Church  to-day  is  critical 
in  the  extreme.  But  the  Church  has  safely 
weathered  many  a  storm.  The  Church,  we  have 
said,  has  always  undertaken  to  identify  itself 
with  the  Kingdom  of  God.  That  was  Christ's 
thought  for  it.  But  whether  the  Kingdom  shall 
be  outside  the  Church  in  the  coming  days  shall 
depend  very  largely  on  our  response  as  Chris- 
tians to  the  social  stimuli  of  our  time.     Whether 


53  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

or  not  a  new  movement  shall  spring  from  the 
Protestant  Church  just  as  that  sprang  from  the 
CathoHc  because  it  would  not  recognize  the 
freedom  of  man  in  his  relationship  towards  God, 
is  to  be  settled  in  the  present  generation/  It 
need  not  be  so,  but  it  will  be  so  unless  the 
Protestant  Church  reacts  promptly  to  the  social 
aspiration,  the  Brotherhood  demand  of  our  day. 
The  men  on  the  outside  who  love  our  Christ,  but 
have  no  hope  of  inducing  the  Church  to  embody 
His  Spirit  in  a  becoming  social  program  of  de- 
termined action,  have  already  selected  the  title 
of  this  spore  from  the  Protestant  Church.  It  is 
to  be  The  Social  Church.  This  world  war  will  un- 
doubtedly witness  at  its  conclusion  a  reconstruc- 
tion of  society  and  all  the  institutions  of  our  life. 
The  Church  can  save  itself  in  that  hour  only  by 
actually  embracing  the  social  gospel  and  arraying 
itself  in  agony  of  heart  on  the  side  of  social  service, 
of  Brotherhood  solidarity,  and  of  the  spiritual  de- 
mocracy of  life  and  life's  institutions,  one  and  all. 

* «  So  discouraged  have  certain  eager  souls  become  over  the  pos- 
sibility of  the  Church  leading  the  nations  out  of  the  present  unchris- 
tian order  that,  without  formally  severing  connection  with  the  Church, 
groups  of  young,  ardent  followers  of  Jesus,  both  in  England  and 
America,  have  come  together  in  new  Christian  fellowships,  that  they 
may  proclaim  to  the  nations  a  new  gospel  commensurate  to  a  new 
and  changed  world.  Thus  in  England  a  group  of  Cambridge  stu- 
dents, discouraged  over  the  silence  of  the  Church  in  this  time  of 
awful  crisis,  joined  themselves  together  in  a  <  Fellowship  of  Recon- 
ciliation,' which  now  numbers  over  4,000  young  men  and  women." 
— Frederick  Lynch,  *«  The  Challenge,"  p.  13  f. 


ITS  GOSPEL  59 

But  lest  there  should  be  uncertainty  as  to  the 
content  of  the  social  gospel,  it  is  proper  to  sug- 
Aad  is  Rigorously  g^st  some  of  the  things  it  must 
Definite  in  Its  undertake   to    do.      We   are    not 

Applications  prepared  to  say  it  is  to  be  the 

final  gospel.  Martin  Luther  thought  his  was, 
but  we  see  after  four  hundred  years  how  far 
short  it  has  fallen.  We  do  not  claim  that  we 
even  now  fully  comprehend  the  aim  and  goal  of 
the  social  gospel.  We  can  but  point  the  way, 
feeling  sure  that  it  is  the  way  our  Master  would 
tread,  were  He  with  us  as  a  man  to-day,  and 
leave  the  further  comprehension  of  the  aim  and 
the  application  of  the  principles  of  this  gospel  to 
the  spirit-enlightened  judgment  of  those  who 
shall  take  our  places  in  the  trenches  when  we 
have  bled  out  our  life. 

Nor  would  we  infer  that  the  churches  have 
been  hands  off  with  reference  to  the  social  gospel. 
Endorsing  the  Social  ^ow  we  rejoice  in  the  Social 
Service  Creed  of  the  Creed  of  the  churches  adopted  by 
Federal  Council  ^j^g  Federal  Council  of  Churches 
of  Christ  in  America!  Our  hearts  swell  with 
hopeful  aspiration  as  we  read  these  splendid 
pronouncements :  **  The  Federal  Council  of 
Churches  of  Christ  in  America  stands  — 

"  For  equal  rights  and  complete  justice  for 
all  men  in  all  stations  of  life. 

"  For  the  protection  of  the  family,  by  the 
single  standard  of  purity,  uniform  divorce  laws, 


60  THE  NEW  CHURCH  ' 

proper  regulation  of  marriage,  and  proper 
housing. 

"  For  the  fullest  possible  development  for 
every  child,  especially  by  the  provision  of  proper 
education  and  recreation. 

"  For  the  abolition  of  child-labor. 

"  For  such  regulation  of  the  conditions  of  toil 
for  women  as  shall  safeguard  the  physical  and 
moral  health  of  the  community. 

"  For  the  abatement  and  prevention  of  poverty. 

"  For  the  protection  of  the  individual  and  so- 
ciety from  the  social,  economic,  and  moral  waste 
of  the  liquor  traffic. 

**  For  the  conservation  of  health. 

"  For  the  protection  of  the  worker  from  dan- 
gerous machinery,  occupational  disease,  injuries, 
and  mortality. 

*'  For  the  right  of  all  men  to  the  opportunity  of 
self-maintenance,  for  safeguarding  this  right 
against  encroachments  of  every  kind,  and  for  the 
protection  of  workers  from  the  hardships  of  en- 
forced unemployment. 

"  For  suitable  provision  for  the  old  age  of  the 
workers,  and  for  those  incapacitated  by  injury. 

"  For  the  right  of  employees  and  employers 
alike  to  organize  and  for  adequate  means  of  con- 
ciliation and  arbitration  in  industrial  disputes. 

"  For  a  release  from  employment  one  day  in 
seven. 

"  For  the  gradual  and  reasonable  reduction  of 


ITS  GOSPEL  6i 

the  hours  of  labor  to  the  lowest  practicable  point, 
and  for  that  degree  of  leisure  for  all  which  is  a 
condition  of  the  highest  human  life. 

**  For  a  living  wage  as  a  minimum  in  every  in- 
dustry, and  for  the  highest  wage  that  each  in- 
dustry can  afford. 

"  For  a  new  emphasis  on  the  application  of 
Christian  principles  to  the  acquisition  and  use  of 
property,  and  for  the  most  equitable  division  of 
the  product  of  industry  that  can  ultimately  be 
devised." 

I  repeat  that  our  hearts  swell  with  hopeful  as- 
piration as  we  read  these  splendid  pronounce- 
Aad  Insisting  That  ments-the  social  creed  of  our 
This  Creed  Shall  American  churches.  We  want 
Be  Incarnated  in  that  this  shall  become  the  social 
the  Churches  ^^^^  ^j  ^^^^^  churches,  for  therein 

is  the  only  hope  of  the  continuation  of  these 
churches  as  servants  of  our  Lord  and  of  His 
brethren.  This  creed  is  sublime.  Its  realization 
must  be  seen  in  the  home,  the  industrial  system, 
the  social  and  political  life  of  our  day.  In  that 
realization  the  sublime  creed  of  the  churches  will 
become  their  glorified  deed.  Such  incarnation 
the  social  gospel  has  set  itself  to  realize  progress- 
ively in  our  time. 

This  social  gospelp  endeavoring  to  incarnate 
the  social  creed  of  the  churches,  has  a  conception 
of  the  home,  exalted  and  holy.  The  parents  in 
the  home  are  to  realize  that  they  are  servants  of 


62  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

God  and  that  they  owe  the  very  best  they  can 
give  to  their  children.  Divorce,  except  for 
The  Social  Gospel  Scriptural  grounds,  must  be  done 
Has  a  Message  for  away.  The  easy  securing  of  a 
the  Home  divorce  is  the  death-knell  of  the 

home.  The  marital  relationship  must  not  be 
lightly  entered  into  and  the  Church  should  see  to 
it  that  unfit  persons  physically  and  morally  do 
not  enter  into  it.  This  is  as  much  its  duty  as  to 
hurl  anathemas  at  those  who  seek  dissolution  of 
unholy  bonds.  The  Church  should  be  careful  to 
ascertain  whether  God  is  really  joining  the  per- 
sons seeking  marriage  together  or  whether  they 
are  merely  seeking  the  sanction  of  religion  for 
a  purely  human  arrangement.  It  will  search 
the  Scriptures  to  see  that  divorce  is  not  so  rigidly 
forbidden  as  the  remarriage  of  divorced  persons. 
As  to  children,  parents  must  be  taught  not  to  ex- 
ploit their  labor,  but  rather  to  conserve  the  en- 
ergy of  the  young  for  the  later  years  of  useful 
life.  The  home  must  not  be  a  hovel,  but  a  real 
home,  and  the  Church  will  see  to  it  that  the 
shacks  and  tenements  now  supporting  their 
owners  in  luxury  by  the  extortionate  rentals  ex- 
acted from  the  poor  shall  be  torn  down  and  de- 
cent quarters  installed.  And  children  must 
honor  their  parents.  Love  must  reign  supreme 
in  the  home,  and  love  is  unholy  according  to 
Scripture  and  experience  unless  it  includes  the 
Lord  in  its  embrace. 


ITS  GOSPEL  63 

As  to  the  industrial  system,  the  Church  will 
sound  a  clarion  call  for  justice,  for  the  old  Hebrew 
And  a  Stirring  Ar-  concept  Mishpat,  which  recognizes 
raigament  of  the  each  man  as  a  child  of  God  with 
industrial  System  inalienable  rights  which  the  social 
order  and  his  brother  men  must  forever  respect. 
Those  who  now  render  the  most  exacting  service 
industrially  receive  the  smaller  share  of  the 
products  of  industry  and  assume  the  liability  of 
accident  to  their  own  persons.  Working  condi- 
tions are  unsanitary.  The  hours  are  too  long. 
The  workers  are  treated  as  machines  rather  than 
as  men.  Little  children  of  tender  years  and 
young  girls  and  women,  who  are  to  be  the  future 
framers  of  our  physical  and  spiritual  bodies,  toil 
themselves  to  exhaustion  and  receive  a  mere  pit- 
tance as  their  reward.  Old  age  insurance  and 
accident  protection  these  toilers  do  not  have  and 
cannot  have  under  present  conditions.  Their 
life  is  one  of  peculiar  hardness,  and  God  will  hear 
their  cry,  just  as  He  heard  that  of  the  oppressed 
Israelites  in  Egypt.  And  He  will  break  the 
bonds  of  their  thralldom  and  bring  them  into  the 
promised  land  of  justice.  Mishpat^  God's  right- 
eous justice,  will  be  brought  back.  There  can 
be  no  doubt  of  it.  Whether  this  will  come  by  the 
overthrow  of  the  capitalistic  order  or  by  engraft- 
ing on  its  stock  certain  humane  reformations,  no 
man  can  tell.  We  have  not  tried  this  path  be- 
fore, but  of  this  we  may  be  sure — the  industrial 


64  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

system  must  be  Christianized  and  that  will  mean 
not  simply  a  minimum  wage  for  each  industry, 
but  the  maximum  wage  for  every  man,  that  he 
may  be  a  man  and  not  a  slave. 

As  to  the  social  life,  the  Church  will  not  plead 
for  equality,  but  for  fraternity  and  the  obliteration 
And  Does  Not  ^^  ^^^te.     God  is  no  respecter  of 

Pass  Over  the  persons  and  the  Church  must  not 
Social  Life  ^^      -fhere   must  be  leisure  pro- 

vided for  every  man  that  he  may  have  oppor- 
tunity for  the  development  of  all  his  powers. 
Amusement  and  entertainment  and  social  life  the 
Church  will  recognize  as  a  legitimate  field  for  its 
entrance.  It  will  put  an  end  to  the  commercial- 
ization of  the  social  instinct  and  in  that  way  re- 
move permanently  the  prurient  elements  that  de- 
base the  attempt  to  satisfy  it.  For  it  is  not  so 
much  the  perversity  of  human  nature  as  the  de- 
sire to  pander  to  the  baser  motives  for  profit's 
sake  that  debases  our  theatres,  our  movies,  our 
parks,  our  social  and  amusement  resorts  of  va- 
rious kinds.  The  remedy  is  in  the  churches' 
hands.  They  can  correct  the  evil  if  they  will. 
They  will,  when  the  Church  makes  up  its  mind  to 
be  a  genuine  community  force,  to  take  its  rightful 
place  at  the  center  of  things.  Whenever  a 
church  anywhere  has  done  this,  whether  in  the 
lumbering  districts  of  Northern  Michigan,  or  in 
peaceful  farming  Rollo,  111.,  or  in  hustlmg  Cleve- 
land, Ohio,  the   community  has   been  as  truly 


ITS  GOSPEL  65 

born  again  and  given  a  glorious  newness  of  life 
as  the  man  is  born  again  who  surrenders  himself 
to  the  leadership  of  Jesus.  These  social  service 
churches  are  the  heralds  of  the  new  day.  They 
purify  wherever  their  influence  reaches.  They 
are  the  embodiments  of  the  social  gospel  with 
direct  application  to  the  local  situation.  No 
rules  can  be  laid  down  for  such  a  church.  Each 
community  has  its  own  unique  situations,  but  the 
principles  of  the  social  gospel  can  meet  those 
local  needs,  and  will  do  it  when  consecrated  men 
give  themselves  to  the  high  service  of  applying 
them. 

As  to  the  political  life,  the  Church  too  has  a 
work,  a  vital  duty.  Church  and  State  are  sepa- 
Nor  Even  the  ^^^^'     ^hey  must  remain  so.     It 

Political  Organ-  is  better  for  both  that  they  main- 
izations  of  Men  ^.g^jj^  themselves  separately,  yet 
they  must  cooperate.  The  life  of  man  is  one  life 
and  the  Church  must  minister  to  it  as  a  whole. 
The  Church  must  turn  its  attention  to  making 
good  citizens  and,  when  politics  get  uncanny, 
clean  things  up.  Nay  more  ;  the  Church  must 
initiate  political  measures  of  social  application 
and  put  them  across.  Prohibition  would  never 
have  come,  not  even  as  a  war-measure  nationally, 
but  for  the  clarion  demand  for  it  on  the  part  of 
the  churches.  All  our  other  social  sins  will  be 
repented  for  and  removed  after  the  same  manner. 
The  churches  have  been  preaching  peace  for  two 


66  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

thousand  years,  and preachiiig  only.  They  have 
left  to  nations,  unchristianized,  the  right  to  ar- 
range for  peace.  As  a  consequence,  now  in  this 
twentieth  century  we  are  engaged  in  a  world- 
conflict  that  all  but  bids  fair  to  wreck  civilization. 
We  have  repented  of  our  folly.  Democracy 
must  reign  in  the  earth,  democracy  which  makes 
rulers  amenable  to  the  ruled.  The  churches  will 
make  both  rulers  and  ruled  amenable  to  the  pro- 
gram of  Hfe  and  principles  of  conduct  promul- 
gated by  the  Man  of  Galilee,  and  that  means  the 
world's  political  regeneration  and  the  ending  of 
fratricidal  strife.  We  must  render  unto  Caesar 
the  things  that  are  his,  and  at  the  same  time  see 
to  it  that  he  lays  no  claim  to  things  belonging  to 
his  brother  men  or  to  God.  Such  is  the  Magna 
Charta  of  political  equality,  the  social  gospel 
applied  to  national  life.  Through  it  only  shall 
redemption  come  to  the  governments  of  the 
world.  Through  it  only  can  the  world  be  safe 
for  genuine  democracy,  which  is  Christianity 
embodied  in  governmental  life.  Through  it  only 
will  democracy  be  safe  for  the  world. 


Ill 

ITS  PHYSICAL  PLANT 

THE  church  that  reaches  its  community 
will  need  to  be  properly  housed.  The 
housing  will  vary  according  to  the 
location  of  the  church.  City,  town  and  rural 
churches  have  widely  varying  problems  to  solvCo 
The  New  Church  ^he  city  church  might  very  well 
Must  Be  Adequately  save  itself  the  expense  of  main- 
Housed  taining  a  large  library  or  a  gym- 
nasium, provided  it  can  see  to  it  that  the  public 
library  and  that  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  or  public  school 
gymnasium  are  properly  managed.  The  town 
church  may  f^nd  itself  better  able  to  supply  the 
social  service  needs  of  the  community  by  com- 
bining with  its  sister  churches.  In  the  matter  of 
relief  work,  all  the  churches,  wherever  geo- 
graphically located,  will  need  to  work  together, 
to  prevent  duplication  and  the  consequent  pau- 
perization of  those  helped.  Our  purpose  now 
is  not  to  enter  into  all  the  kinds  of  things  the 
Social  Service  Church  may  properly  attempt,  but 
merely  to  discuss  the  architecture  of  the  plant  as 
it  will  be  influenced  by  the  aim  of  the  church  to 

67 


68  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

meet  its  Social  Service  obligation,  and  naturally- 
only  that  in  a  general  way.  Principles  are  all 
we  shall  attempt ;  methods  of  applying  and 
adapting  them  to  the  local  situation  must  be  left 
to  the  building  committee  and  the  architect. 

I  have  served  on  the  building  committee  and 
know  its  problems  and  embarrassments.  Usually 
Which  Means  the    employing    of   a   competent 

Employing  an  architect  is  dispensed  with,  on  the 

Architect  ground  that  the  expense  can  be 

saved.  This  is  a  mistake.  A  competent  archi- 
tect will  save  several  times  his  fee,  and  besides 
he  knows  the  very  latest  ideals  before  the  Chris- 
tian world  and  can  bring  them  to  bear  on  the 
local  situation.  It  is  a  very  serious  error  in 
judgment,  if  not  neglect  to  the  point  of  being 
criminal,  to  undertake  a  church  building  in  these 
days,  when  church  architecture  has  become  a 
highly  specialized  business,  without  securing  the 
professional  guidance  of  a  competent  church 
architect.  Note  that  I  said  church  architect 
Ordinarily  the  local  architect  is  not  a  competent 
church  builder.  In  the  whole  country  there  are 
about  one  hundred  architects  who  have  special- 
ized in  church  buildings  and  plants.  It  is  su- 
preme wisdom  to  get  one  of  them. 

When  the  architect  has  been  employed,  he  will 
of  course  meet  with  the  building  committee. 
He  will  with  them  go  over  the  community  needs, 
intellectual,    social,    recreational,    spiritual.     He 


ITS  PHYSICAL  PLANT  69 

will  tell  them  what  his  idea  is  as  to  the  invest- 
ment required  to  meet  those  needs.  If  the  com- 
Who  Shall  Be  mittee  is  able  to  finance  the  situ- 

Fuiiy  Trusted  ation,  well  and  good.     If  not,  the 

and  Followed  pruning  down  process  must  be- 

gin. Oftentimes  members  of  a  building  com- 
mittee have  very  definite  convictions  about  what 
they  want.  It  is  well  for  them  to  present  those 
convictions  frankly,  and  then  to  leave  the  final 
disposition  of  them  with  the  architect  A  com- 
petent architect  will  refuse  to  submit  a  plan  un- 
less he  is  given  this  power.  And  he  ought  to 
have  it,  just  as  much  so  as  the  physician  with 
reference  to  the  medicines  he  shall  prescribe  when 
we  are  ill.  A  community  whose  church  plant  is 
inadequate  and  poorly  adapted  to  its  needs  is 
virtually  a  sick  community.  The  architect  is  the 
physician.  Get  one  you  have  confidence  in  and 
then  take  his  medicine.  Don't  try  to  get  archi- 
tects to  compete  with  each  other.  It  is  non-pro- 
fessional and  only  poor  ones  will  enter  the  com- 
petition. And  let  your  building  committee  be 
representative  of  all  ages  and  sections  of  the  con- 
gregation. To  have  only  deacons  or  only  large 
givers  on  this  committee  will  almost  certainly 
lead  to  the  erection  of  a  one-sided  church  edifice. 
Be  prepared  to  go  in  debt,  if  the  situation  calls 
for  heroic  measures,  and  by  all  means  be  libera! 
and  build  with  a  view  to  growth.  The  new  plant 
will  likely  be  useful  for  a  quarter-century.     An 


70  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

ticipate  the  needs  of  that  time  and  undertake  to 
supply  them. 

We  may  pause  here  long  enough  to  say  a  few 
things  about  architectural  considerations  in  gen- 
A  Few  General  ^^al.  The  traditional  in  church 
Remarks  on  buildings  is  not  to  be  discarded 

Church  Architecture  ruthlessly.  There  is  something  in 
the  desire  to  have  the  finished  plant  look  like  a 
church.  But  the  traditional  must  not  put  brakes 
on  progress  to  the  injury  of  the  cause  of  Christ. 
Some  splendid  men  have  the  idea  that  the 
church,  meaning  the  entire  plant,  must  never  be 
used  except  for  worship,  teaching,  and  preach- 
ing. This  would  be  defensible,  but  for  the  lim- 
ited notion  they  have  of  worship  and  teaching. 
Teaching  means  teaching  out  of  the  Bible  only 
or  out  of  quarterlies  based  on  portions  of  Scrip- 
ture and  excludes  teaching  civic  and  social  duties 
in  the  week  or  by  the  movies.  Worship,  worships 
how  stereotyped  and  standardized  it  is  !  It  is  an 
iceberg  to  the  emotions.  The  Frigid  Zones  are 
its  favorite  temperature.  The  idea  of  worship- 
ping God  in  play,  physical  exercise,  and  recrea- 
tional sports  shocks  their  righteous  souls,  and 
they  will  leave  the  church  that  so  far  departs  from 
the  traditions  of  the  fathers.  You  will  have  to 
deal  gently,  lovingly,  sympathetically,  but  firmly 
with  the  traditional  in  church  architecture.  You 
must  not  be  surprised  that  I  have  classed  these 
traditional   notions   of   the   brethren   as  "archi- 


ITS  PHYSICAL  PLANT  71 

tecture."  They  are  properly  so  classed,  because 
the  church  edifice  has  produced  these  notions 
and  the  church  edifice  can  change  them,  only  the 
change  must  not  be  too  radical  and  certainly  not 
ruthless. 

Positively  speaking,  the  church  edifice  should 
be  beautiful,  but  not  showy  ;  substantial,  but  not 
The  Qualities  the  massive;  genuine,  and  not  ve- 
New  Church  Plant  neered.  It  should  incorporate  in 
Will  Embody  j^-ggif  ^^^  g^eat  thoughts  and  ideals 

of  religion.  There  should  be  no  flimsiness  or 
gaudy  ornamentation  for  ornament's  sake. 
Strength,  durability,  genuineness,  dignity,  beauty, 
repose,  reverence — these  are  the  seven  perfect 
points  of  the  architecturally  satisfying  church 
plant.  The  grounds  too  will  need  attention. 
They  should  be  artistically  arranged  and  well- 
kept.  Shrubbery,  vines,  a  green  lawn,  if  only  a 
mere  patch,  command  respect  and  beget  spiritual 
aspiration.  But  the  whole  must  be  designed  with 
an  eye  single  to  usefulness — for  service  is  to  be 
the  big  word  in  church  architecture  as  well  as  in 
religion  in  this  new  day,  and  the  joy  of  it  is  that 
usefulness  and  the  other  considerations  demanded 
by  architectural  science  are  in  perfect  and  har- 
monious accord. 

The  question  of  remodelling  or  building  out- 
right is  always  a  vexing  one  in  any  community. 
The  present  plant  is  usually  valuable.  Sacred 
and  tender  associations  are  intricately  intertwined 


72  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

with  it.  The  heart's  affections  are  there.  I 
heard  of  a  church  that  had  the  question  settled 

for    them — by    a     cyclone.     An- 
ButWeMust  ^,  r         J     r  . 

Move  Carefully  ^^^^^  ^^^  relieved  of  embarrass- 
ment by  a  fire.  But  most  of  them 
discard  the  pastor  who  proposes  the  measure, 
only  to  follow  his  successor  in  doing  the  very 
thing  he  proposed.  Grace,  grit,  and  gumption, 
noble  triplet  of  g's,  must  be  employed.  The 
architect  can  be  trusted  and  should  be.  Many 
plants  need  to  be  constructed  over  outright. 
The  architect  oftentimes  can  utilize  part  of  the 
present  plant,  and  certainly  the  material  can  be 
used  in  the  construction  of  the  new  structure. 
Enter  into  the  matter  free  to  do  what  is  best  and 
pray  for  grace  to  accept  the  decision  in  Christian 
spirit. 

Speaking  generally,  the  Social  Service*  Church, 
whether  in  city,  town,  or  rural  district,  will  need 

_^  -  ,.,  ^  to  provide  a  home  for  the  min- 
The  Constituent  ^  i  •  j 

Elements  of  the  ister,  an  edifice  for  worship  and 
New  Church  Plant  ^\\^\e  teaching,  and  means  of 
carrying  on  the  week-day  activities  of  the  church 
as  the  community's  center.     This  may  require 

1  Let  us  pause  here  long  enough  to  say  that  there  is  a  vital  differ- 
ence  between  the  Institutional  and  the  Social  Service  Church.  The 
Institutional  Church  produces  wards.  The  Social  Service  Church 
yields  guardians.  The  former  cures.  The  latter  makes  strong  and 
vigorous  through  effort.  The  Institutional  Church  says  "  come." 
The  Social  Service  Church  says  "  go  " — go  and  be  witnesses  that 
others  may  -'  come." 


ITS  PHYSICAL  PLANT  73 

but  two  buildings.  It  very  often  and  preferably 
requires  three.  It  might  conceivably  have  four 
or  more.  The  cheapest  plan  is  to  combine 
church,  teaching  and  community  activity  func- 
tions in  one  structure,  and  the  minister's  home  in 
another.  Or,  as  in  the  Reems  Creek  (N.  C.) 
parsonage,  we  might  combine  parsonage  and 
parish  house.  Those  who  have  traditional  views 
as  to  the  sanctity  of  the  place  of  worship  will 
desire  the  segregation  of  the  activities  in  a  parish 
house.  They  may  have  to  be  listened  to  in  our 
generation.  They  are  usually  good  people  and 
liberal  supporters  of  things  as  they  are.  The 
parish  house  compromise  will  save  their  feelings 
and  themselves  to  the  church,  and  we  should  not 
ofiend  even  these  large  ones.  It  goes  without 
saying  that  the  plant  should  be  a  real  plant 
physically,  that  is,  its  buildings  should  be  at  one 
place  and  that  they  should  constitute  an  archi- 
tectural unit. 

I.  The  Minister's  Home 
The  minister's  home  should  be  a  substantial 
structure,  not  elaborate,  but  impressive.  He  is 
It  Should  Provide  ^^^  community's  greatest  servant 
for  the  Minister  — its  most  useful  citizen,  and  his 
Comfortably  j^^j^g  should  suggest  by  its  archi- 

tecture his  dignity  and  worth.  It  will  not  be 
the  most  costly  home  in  the  community,  but 
simple  and  dignified  with  conveniences  and  com- 


74  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

fort.  As  to  cost,  it  should  compare  with  the 
homes  of  the  membership  whose  income  is 
about  his  or  more.  An  architect  should  plan  it. 
The  premises  should  be  well-kept,  and  serenity 
and  happiness  should  be  suggested  by  it  to  all. 
A  small  garden  should  go  with  it,  if  gardens  are 
a  part  of  the  homes  of  the  membership.  In  the 
country,  a  little  farm  should  go  with  the  home. 
The  minister  must  be  an  ensample  to  his  people. 
His  farm  should  be  well-tended  and  modern. 
The  furniture  of  the  home  should  be  neat  and 
comfortable,  without  flimsiness  or  ornamentation. 
A  vehicle  of  some  kind  should  be  provided,  from 
a  bicycle  to  a  Ford,  or  in  a  moment  of  rare 
generosity,  a  real  automobile  with  an  adequate 
endowment  for  upkeep,  as  the  local  situation 
may  suggest. 

II.  The  House  of  Worship 
The  Christian  world  has  met  the  demands  of 
congregational  worship  with  ample  provision. 
And  Contain  Ample  We  need  only  summarize  the  con- 
Accommodations  for  elusions  that  have  been  reached  in 
Public  Worship  regard  to  it.  The  house  of  wor- 
ship should  be  well  lighted,  comfortably  seated, 
spacious  enough  to  accommodate  the  congrega- 
tion without  overcrowding,  acoustically  con- 
structed, dignified,  reverential,  uplifting.  Here 
is  the  community's  heart.  Here  in  a  peculiar 
sense  God  meets  with  His  people  and  they  fel- 


ITS  PHYSICAL  PLANT  75 

lowship  with  Him.  Luxurious  appointments, 
showiness,  veneer — these  have  no  place  in  God's 
house,  but  it  is  stinginess  for  a  people  to  worship 
God  in  a  house  they  would  not  be  willing  to  live 
in  as  a  home,  from  the  standpoint  of  beauty  and 
comfort.  Whether  the  church  auditorium  should 
ever  be  used  other  than  for  worship,  funerals, 
and  marriages,  local  sentiment  must  determine. 
Nothing  must  ever  be  done  in  any  way  tending 
in  the  community's  mind  to  depreciate  its  sanc- 
tity or  secularize  its  sacred  associations. 

III.  The  Sunday-School 
The  Sunday-school  edifice  is  usually  archi- 
tecturally a  part  of  the  church  itself.  Often- 
The  Sunday=School  ^imes,  and  especially  in  country 
Building  Demands  districts,  it  Is  the  church  audi- 
Special  Care  torium.       To    provide    in    some 

sense  the  outward  appearance  of  a  school  and  to 
give  privacy  in  form  to  the  classes,  curtains  or 
other  devices  are  resorted  to  in  such  cases. 
Even  the  most  primitive  country  community  in 
the  next  generation  will  be  ashamed  not  to  make 
more  adequate  preparation  than  this  for  the 
teaching  function  of  the  church. 

The  Sunday-school  is  charged  with  three 
separate  duties — instruction,  worship,  and  ex- 
pressional  activities.  The  last  named  can  be 
treated  under  the  community  activities  so  far  as 
they  are  not  associated  with   the  worship   and 


76  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

the  teaching  functions  of  the  school.     They  will 
not  influence  the  architecture  of  the  plant  where 

community  activities  are  provided 
rA'c^S"'''  f-  adequately  or  even  seriously 

attempted,  and  since  our  con- 
cern is  as  to  the  building  itself  we  shall  pass 
over  further  consideration  at  this  time  of  these 
expressional  activities.  The  provision  for  wor- 
ship and  instruction  can  happily  be  treated  to- 
gether. 

Two  ideas  are  battling  with  each  other  in  the 
Sunday-school  world — the  "togetherness"  and 
The  "  Together"  *^^  **  separateness "  ideas.  The 
ness "  and  "  Sepa=  school  must  come  together,  and 
rateness "  Plans  separate  for  the  lesson,  and  re- 
assemble. That  conception  predominates  in  the 
Sunday-school  generally  to-day.  It  was  based 
on  the  idea  that  the  superintendent  is  the  main 
engineer,  the  strategic  person  in  the  Sunday- 
school.  He  must  be  seen,  obeyed,  and  heard  in 
a  five-minute  talk  based  on  a  uniform  lesson. 
Graded  lessons  have  come  and  a  new  notion  of 
worship.  These  are  denying  the  "together- 
ness "  ideal  and  insisting  on  the  "  separateness  " 
plan.  In  the  new  and  modernly  constructed 
Sunday-school,  the  teacher  of  the  individual 
class  and  the  department  superintendent  are  the 
strategic  persons.  The  superintendent  of  the 
whole  school  directs  and  engineers,  but  he  is  not 
the   center  of    public   attraction   he   once   was. 


ITS  PHYSICAL  PLANT  77 

Under  the  new  arrangement,  the  opening  and 
closing  exercises,  oftentimes  a  mere  farce  at 
worship,  are  real  occasions  of  real  worship  with 
real  training  in  worship  as  a  regular  part  of  the 
class  instruction  preparing  for  them.  This  is 
neither  the  time  nor  the  place  to  discuss  the 
need  and  methods  of  training  in  worship. 
Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  modern  Sunday-school 
will  provide  for  training  in  worship  and  see  that 
it  is  duly  exercised.  There  will  of  course  be 
rally  days  in  the  whole  school,  when  all  depart- 
ments will  come  together  in  the  church  auditorium 
and  where  the  superintendent  will  be  in  the  glory 
of  his  preeminence  again,  and  how  his  heart  will 
rejoice  on  these  togetherness  occasions  to  behold 
the  achievements  and  fruitage  of  his  many  sep- 
arateness  days  I  On  such  occasions  the  new 
conception  of  the  Sunday-school  will  have  its 
ample  justification  and,  if  need  be,  vindication 
as  well. 

But  let  us  look  particularly  at  these  two  ideas, 
genetically  and  historically.  When  the  Sunday- 
The  History  of  school  was  young,  all  met  in  the 
These  Ideas—  same  room  as  in   the  rural  dis- 

Note  Carefully  ^j-icts  to-day,  and  often  all  were 

in  one  class.  Then  the  idea  came  that  the  laws 
of  education  applied  here,  and  there  was  division 
into  classes  by  age  and  sometimes  by  sex.  Since 
it  was  next  to  impossible  for  all  these  classes  to 
be   taught  in  one  room  at  one  time,  separate 


78  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

class-rooms  were  provided  either  by  curtains  or 
by  some  other  device.  The  whole  school  it  was 
felt  must  get  together  for  the  opening  and  closing 
exercises.  The  idea  naturally  therefore  arose 
that  permanent  separate  class-rooms  were 
needed,  with  provision  for  the  togetherness  idea 
in  a  central  room,  and  since  the  rally  days  of 
the  church  frequently  overran  the  church  audito- 
rium, what  was  more  natural  than  for  the  Sun- 
day-school assembly  room  to  be  utilized  as  an 
annex  to  the  church  auditorium  ?  This  was  the 
prevaihng  sentiment  of  the  religious  leaders  in 
1867.  In  that  year  Mr.  Lewis  Miller,  Akron, 
Ohio,  conceived  the  idea  that  for  half  a  century 
has  dominated  the  Sunday-school  architecture 
of  the  world.  It  is  known  as  the  Akron  plan 
and  was  first  used  in  the  construction  of  the 
First  Methodist  Sunday-School  of  Akron,  Ohio. 
Mr.  Miller  was  a  prominent  lay-worker.  He 
submitted  his  idea  to  Messrs.  Snyder  and  Blythe, 
two  architects,  who  developed  it  into  the  type  of 
building  we  all  know,  a  building  meeting  the 
definition  in  that  day  of  the  end  to  be  served  by 
the  Sunday-school  as  it  was  given  by  Bishop 
John  H.  Vincent  in  these  words :  "  Provide  for 
togetherness  and  separateness :  have  a  room  in 
which  the  whole  school  can  be  brought  together 
in  a  moment  for  simultaneous  exercises,  and  with 
a  minimum  of  movement  be  divided  into  classes 
for  uninterrupted  class  work."     In  1872  the  Uni- 


ITS  PHYSICAL  PLANT  79 

form  Lessons  were  provided,  exactly  fitting  into 
the  Akron  plan. 

However,  as  better  methods  of  teaching  came, 

dissatisfaction  began  to  be  felt  with  this  type  of 

building.      The    Beginners'    and 

daN^wC  P"'"^'y  departments  began  to 
demand  separate  quarters,  and 
got  them.  As  far  back  as  1893  Mr.  Geo.  W. 
Kramer,  of  New  York  City,  prepared  a  model 
building  providing  separate  rooms  for  all  de- 
partments and  at  the  same  time  permitting  the 
togetherness  idea,  which  in  that  day  no  architect 
was  bold  enough  to  break  away  from  entirely. 
This  plan  was  exhibited  at  the  World's  Fair  that 
year. 

But  in  1908  the  International  Sunday-School 
Association  did  a  thing  that  dealt  the  death- 
Dawn  Fully  Comes,  blow  to  the  Akron  plan.  It  will 
and  the  Sky  is  be  a  generation  before  the  plan 
Aglow  with  Change  ^jn  ^^  entirely  discredited,  but  it 
is  doomed.^  What  I  have  reference  to  was  the 
authorization    of    graded   lessons.      More   than 

^  In  a  letter  to  the  author  touching  this  very  point,  Mr.  Geo.  W. 
Kramer,  of  the  famous  Kramer  &  Son  firm  of  church  architects,  writes 
(July  9,  1917)  :  "The  Akron  Sunday-school  plan,  as  you  are  prob- 
ably aware,  has  been  almost  entirely  superseded,  so  that  (while  it  to 
a  certain  extent  influences  later  plans)  interest  in  that  plan  to-day  is 
largely  of  a  historic  character.  All  of  our  recent  work  has  consisted 
in  adaptations  of  buildings  to  the  requirements  of  the  Graded  De- 
partmental System,  buildings  for  Religious  Education,  and  the  Com- 
munity Building." 


80  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

50,000  schools  have  now  introduced  the  graded 
lessons  in  one  form  or  another,  and  it  will  not 
be  long  till  practically  all  will  adopt  them.  The 
graded  lessons  make  the  togetherness  idea  with 
desire  to  hear  a  five-minute  talk  from  the  super- 
intendent on  the  lesson  impossible.  There  is  no 
uniform  lesson.  Instead  five-minute  talks  on 
missions  have  been  tried,  to  save  the  superin- 
tendent's old  time  prestige,  but  we  shall  soon  for 
another  consideration  abandon  the  talk  altogether 
and  cease  to  try  to  get  together  except  on  the 
rally  days  as  aforesaid. 

That  other  consideration  is  the  consideration 
of  worship.  Bishop  Vincent  thought  a  room  was 
The  Consideration  needed  "for  simultaneous  exer- 
Tiiat  Settles  tiie  cises."  Note  he  did  not  say  wor- 
*^^"®  ship,  and  rightly  so.     These  sim- 

ultaneous exercises  are  not  worship  and  with 
great  difficulty  can  be  made  to  resemble  it.  We 
need  worship  in  our  life — the  outflowing  of  the 
heart  when  the  presence  of  God  is  consciously 
realized.  But  three-year-olds  and  gray-haired 
veterans  of  lifers  batdes,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
boys  and  girls  in  the  teens,  realize  this  conscious 
presence  in  far  different  moods  and  manners,  and 
in  every  case  below  adult  life  in  order  to  realize 
it  special  training  is  necessary.  The  idea  of 
simultaneous  worship  is  impossible.  There  is 
then  no  need  for  the  togetherness  idea  longer  to 
dominate  the  architecture  of  the  Sunday-school 


ITS  PHYSICAL  PLANT  8J 

edifice/  The  only  other  consideration  calling  for 
it  is  the  need  of  additional  space  for  the  church's 
special  days.  But  this  consideration  must  not 
overshadow  the  greater  needs  of  efficiency  and 
of  worship.  The  church  will  find  some  other 
plan  of  caring  for  these  occasions. 

Since  the  action  of  the  International  Sunday- 
School  Association  taken  in  1908,  as  mentioned 
The  Marvellous  ^bove,  much  activity  has  been 
Rapidity  of  the  manifested  among  the  architects 
New  Movement's  to  house  properly  the  new  type  of 
Spread  school  that  has  arisen  50,ooostrong 

and  that  is  destined  constantly  to  multiply  its 
kind  till  it  occupies  the  whole  field.  These  archi- 
tects have  had  in  mind  to  provide  for  six  depart- 
ments, Beginners',  Primary,  Junior,  Intermediate, 
Senior,  and  Adult,  each  department  to  be  entered 
directly  from  the  halls  and  not  through  other  de- 
partments. They  are  agreed  that  absolutely  sep- 
arate rooms  must  be  provided  for  the  first  three 
departments  and  that  they  are  desirable  for  the 
other  three,  though  not  absolutely  essential.  It 
is  permissible  for  the  church  auditorium  to  be 
used  as  the  assembly  room  for  worship  of  the 
Intermediate,  Senior,  and  Adult  departments,  but 
it  is  not  advised  unless  other  provision  is  impos- 

*  Nor  is  the  principle  here  involved  invalidated  whether  the  school 
adopts  any  one  of  the  many  excellent  series  of  graded  lessons  or  the 
really  excellent  uniform  graded  lessons  now  put  out  by  the  New 
International  Committee  for  1918-1925. 


82  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

sible.  Provision  is  made  by  these  architects  for 
sufficient  clasS'rooms  to  separate  classes  by  sexes, 
beginning  with  the  Junior  department,  should  the 
constituency  desire  such  separation. 

Naturally  we  cannot  enter  into  the  merits  and 
demerits  of  the  various  plans.     Highly  special- 
ized books  treat  them.     The  hap- 
The  Cedar  Rapids  •     ^        i    ^-  r  r  .1  T 

Plan  Arrives  P^^^^  solution  SO  far  of  the  prob- 

lems involved  seems  to  have  been 
reached  by  Mr.  W.  C.  Jones,  a  Chicago  archi- 
tect, in  his  plan  for  the  St.  Paul's  Methodist 
Church,  Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa.  This  plan  bids  fair 
to  be  the  vogue  in  Sunday-school  architecture  for 
the  present  and  succeeding  generations,  unless 
God  should  reveal  to  His  workers  other  needs  to 
be  met  which  we  cannot  now  foresee.  The  Cedar 
Rapids  plan  will  supplant  the  Akron  plan  just  as 
it  Jacobized  the  school  that  met  in  one  room,  that 
room  being  the  church  auditorium.  In  a  private 
letter  to  the  author  Mr.  Jones  says  of  this  church  : 
**  This  has  proved  to  be  a  very  popular  church 
and  I  am  receiving  inquiries  from  all  over  the 
United  States  regarding  it."  Mr.  Jones  is  a  mod- 
est man  and  makes  no  boastful  claims.  God  has 
enabled  him  to  render  a  signal  service  to  the 
Christian  life  in  permitting  him  to  construct  this 
splendid  structure. 

IV.    The  Community  Activities 
But  we  now  come  to  the  real  issue  of  the  mod- 


ITS  PHYSICAL  PLANT  83 

ern  church  in  its  relation  to  the  community. 
What  shall  be  its  attitude  ?  Shall  it  stop  with 
But  the  Church  providing  a  home  for  the  minister, 
Plant  Must  Go  a  house  of  worship,  and  an  ade- 
^^^^^^^  quate  plant  for  its  Sunday-school  ? 

It  will  if  its  idea  is  "  Come  ye  out  from  among 
them  ;  be  ye  separate,"  but  not  if  its  ideal  is  that 
of  service  and  intention  to  be  "  all  things  to  all 
men  that  it  may  win  some."  I  have  good  friends 
who  put  the  foot  down  here  and  say  "  It  is 
enough  ;  it  is  finished."  I  love  them,  but  I  can- 
not agree  with  them.  My  Master  came  not  to  be 
ministered  unto,  but  to  minister,  and  He  declared 
that  he  should  be  greatest  in  His  Kingdom  who 
most  served.  That  is  my  notion  of  the  Church. 
It  is  to  be  a  servant  and  it  must  serve  the  whole 
man — not  only  his  spirit,  but  his  mind,  his  social 
nature,  his  physical  man.  It  will  do  it  through 
its  community  activities,  and  those  activities  will 
vary  from  community  to  community. 

In  many  places  the  Sunday-school  building 
will  house  these  activities,  so  far  as  they  need 
It  Will  Contain  a  housing.  Its  lecture  room  or  that 
Community  Building  of  the  church,  if  it  has  a  separate 
and  Grounds  lecture  room,  can  care  for  the  de- 

bating societies,  the  socials  indoors,  the  popular 
lectures,  and  the  meetings  of  the  various  circles, 
guilds,  and  other  societies.  It  can  very  well  also 
care  for  the  moving  picture  exhibits.  In  a  pinch, 
it  can  be  the  indoor  gymnasium  or  recreational 


M  THE  XE^   C-iURCH 


:.5  cm  >erve 
:-:.  a  third 


^-.~o.    L-^aL 


.:::-r.  c^^  -?r.  and 


prove  5 _.:_:. r  :.:  .:s  srre^-iz^.  Tze^e  banquets 
5ii:.ild  be  iree,  the  :  . .  r:  :o  c»e  bome  by  the  cur- 
:rz:  -^Tpense  ace: ,  r :  :'-e  :'-.-:"  Thds  is  in 
"r   _-:erest  of   e    ::     r         r     :        „.r:r.:rv    and 

ez-^il:rr.     W^ezf  r:    :    t   :..:.e   :s   s;:fii  at  me 

l_::i5  -:_5r    .:  .;  ::   It  ::.-  L  ::  z  ^  '.:.:-  :zi  fiiiiire. 


cem  our 

■   "her. 

i^.i  to 

Brother- 


service  Church  should 

rts»base:  sket- 

.  ...tr  outdc  : :  ^.-zirs  in 


ITS  PHYSICAL  PLANT  &5 

good  local  repute  sb'uld  i-e  be'.d.     Tiitre  szz-ili 
be  a  ODfmnunitT     t 


rriTiMil  AOz-.     :  i 

gave  us  :.:..  -..:  ~  _.:  :t  -.:• 
plav  is  7z:->Lzy  u  :ie^ua  lz.: 
ve!"?T?rr. -'  '      '''le  ce."  '^-'^e  G"""'!! 

pay,  c.:.  1  :  ~t  .:  \  :  ~t  "_ 
plav  c:  i_ :  T.  ^ .  i  -. .  :  -  2.z.^z 
menxs  too  we  —us:  r::*  :t  :: 
mission  fees,  -Lit.:  ::r:  it.t  -  .r„r 


for  dancmg-.  ^ri-pLa  .-Izr  r 
frequennng,  and  fell  thai  ii  : 
communitv  ob  :  ri  ~ :  *:  r  '  5 .: : 
nuDciation.       7    r     r  St 

equally  b:  i  r  r    .:  -  ;     C 

equally  ze       .  :         :     ^ 

some  and  -=.::_  ^z:_;-~zli 
It  goes  without  sav-in?  that  s 
will  re:      r      -  ~       , 

untar^'  ^  -  - 

always  :  Tr  z  :r.  : 

and  pi    r  r 

vexing     .  —  :  s  _ :  r      r 

win  the  .::^.:  :.:::.       - 
real  servant  c:  z 


84  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

room.  One  of  the  departmental  rooms  can  serve 
as  a  library,  another  as  a  reading  room,  a  third 
as  the  office  room  of  the  relief  committee  of  the 
church.  A  kitchen  can  easily  be  provided  that 
the  church  banquets  may  be  arranged  for,  and 
either  the  lecture  room  or  the  gymnasium  or 
both,  where  an  old-fashioned  picnic  dinner  on  the 
ground  seems  for  any  reason  less  desirable,  will 
prove  suitable  for  its  spreading.  These  banquets 
should  be  free,  their  cost  to  be  borne  by  the  cur- 
rent expense  account  of  the  church.  This  is  in 
the  interest  of  good  fellowship,  fraternity  and 
equality.  Whenever  the  table  is  spread  at  the 
Lord's  house,  it  is  to  be  the  Lord's  table  in  future, 
and  the  Lord's  people  are  to  partake  without 
money  and  without  price.  In  our  church  ban- 
quets we  shall  never  again  penalize  the  poor  man 
with  a  large  family  and  charge  only  a  pittance 
in  comparison  for  the  millionaire  and  his  dia- 
mond-bedecked childless  wife.  God  will  forgive 
our  errors  in  the  past,  now  that  we  discern  our 
follies,  but  we  must  cease  to  commit  them  further. 
A  commercialized  church  supper  is  an  insult  to 
Christian  charity,  a  shame  on  Christian  Brother- 
hood, the  defeat  of  its  own  worldly  ends. 

Some  will  object  to  the  gymnasium  feature. 
They  will  more  seriously  object  to  the  athletic 
field  which  the  Social  Service  Church  should 
have.  Here  the  field-day  sports,  baseball,  basket- 
ball, tennis,  croquet,  and  other  outdoor  games  in 


ITS  PHYSICAL  PLANT  85 

good  local  repute  should  be  held.  There  should 
be  a  community  recreational  day  occasionally, 
With  Full  Provision  ^nd  everybody  should  attend, 
for  Social  and  Rec-  Those  who  conscientiously  ob- 
reationai  Activities  jg^t  should  consider  that  God 
gave  us  bodies  that  must  be  cared  for,  and  that 
play  is  necessary  to  health  and  character-de- 
velopment. We  can  serve  God,  we  have  said, 
when  we  play  as  well  as  when  we  pray  or 
pay,  and  if  we  cannot,  we  must  change  our 
play  or  allow  God  to  change  us.  Amuse- 
ments too  we  must  provide  for,  without  ad- 
mission fees,  their  cost  being  charged  to  the  cur- 
rent expense  account.  Too  often  the  Church 
has  thundered  and  railed  at  the  young  people 
for  dancing,  card-playing,  theatre-going,  movie- 
frequenting,  and  felt  that  it  had  discharged  its 
community  obligation  by  such  raillery  and  de- 
nunciation. The  Social  Service  Church  is 
equally  bold  in  denouncing  these  things,  but 
equally  zealous  in  providing  positively  whole- 
some and  helpful  amusements  and  recreations. 
It  goes  without  saying  that  such  a  church  plant 
will  require  adequate  supervision,  whether  vol- 
untary or  paid  is  not  important,  and  that  it  should 
always  be  open.  The  plan  to  combine  parsonage 
and  parish  house  in  country  districts  solves  the 
vexing  question  of  supervision  admirably.  Thus 
will  the  church  be  at  the  community's  center,  the 
real  servant  of  man,  where  it  ought  to  be. 


S6  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

I  have  already  said  the  church  will  not  dupli- 
cate institutions  already  on  the  field  where  it  can 
Working  Always  Purify  and  direct  these  institu- 
with  Institutions  tions,  but  if  it  cannot,  its  duty  is 
Already  on  tiie  Field  pjain.  I  have  now  to  say  that  in 
country  districts  and  towns,  the  churches  of  all 
denominations  should  unite  in  providing  and 
maintaining  these  community  activities,  erecting 
a  suitable  parish  house  or  community  center 
jointly.  This  will  eventually  lead  to  their  calling 
a  single  pastor  and  so  work  to  the  realization  of 
our  Lord's  prayer  that  His  people  should  become 
one. 

The  finest  instance  of  a  parish  house,  church 
house,  or  community  house  as  you  prefer  to 
The  Finest  Arrange-  designate  it,  is  that  of  the 
ment  So  Far  Devised  Winnetka  (111.)  Congregational 
for  This  Purpose  Church.^  Winnetka  is  one  of  the 
suburbs  of  Chicago,  being  seventeen  miles  away. 
The  plant  is  ideally  situated  in  natural  woods. 
Its  grounds  have  been  skillfully  handled  by  the 
landscape  gardener,  which  renders  the  approach 
all  that  could  be  desired.  Winnetka  has  a 
population  of  about  four  thousand  people.  A 
few  years  ago  the  church  was  only  a  small 
wooden     structure,    unattractive    in    character. 

1  For  full  discussion  of  this  plant  see  Evans'  "  The  Sunday-School 
Building  and  its  Equipment,"  and  Gates'  "  Recreation  and  the 
Church."  The  pastor,  Rev,  J.  W.  F.  Davies,  will  be  glad  to  advise 
with  any  seeking  his  counsel. 


ITS  PHYSICAL  PLANT  87 

Under  the  skilled  direction  of  a  man  with  a 
vision,  a  stone  church  was  constructed  which 
every  one  thought  would  be  adequate  for  a 
generation.  The  splendid  graded  Sunday- 
school  within  two  years  overcrowded  the  new 
building  and  for  a  time  was  compelled  to  meet 
in  two  separate  sessions.  The  people  of  Win- 
netka  were  pleased  with  the  work  of  the  church 
and  responded  generously  to  a  second  appeal, 
giving  over  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  in  all  for 
the  church  and  community  house. 

An  excellent  room  is  available  on  the  ground 
floor  for  the  Primary  Department.  A  modern 
kitchen  supplies  convenient  service  to  any  por- 
tion of  the  first  floor.  Fully  appointed  club- 
rooms  are  open  for  men  all  day  and  evening. 
The  large  gymnasium  with  high  ceiling  affords 
an  ideal  floor  which  is  busy  morning  and  after- 
noon all  the  week,  with  classes  for  men,  women, 
boys,  girls,  and  young  people.  A  stage  gives 
opportunity  for  amateur  entertainments.  This 
room  is  used  two  or  three  times  a  week  for  mo- 
tion pictures.  The  seating  capacity  of  seven 
hundred  is  frequently  taxed  by  the  people  of 
Winnetka.  Only  the  highest  grade  of  films, 
locally  censored,  is  ever  allowed.  So  successful 
has  been  this  feature  of  the  work  that  no  com- 
mercial motion-picture  theatre  has  located  in 
Winnetka.  This  church  is  a  real  community 
center. 


88  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

The  second-floor  plan  shows  ten  club-rooms 
which  are  occupied  week-day  afternoons  and 
evenings  by  the  boys  and  young  men.  On 
scheduled  occasions  the  girls  and  young  women 
occupy  them.  These  rooms  are  used  for  class 
work  on  Sunday.  The  basement  plan  has  ample 
facilities  for  private  shower  baths  and  locker- 
room.  In  the  basement  also  are  two  game- 
rooms,  one  for  men  and  one  for  boys,  and  the 
gun  room  for  the  Volunteer  Training  Unit. 
Once  a  month,  now  that  we  are  at  war,  patriotic 
services  are  held.  In  the  height  of  the  winter 
season  the  weekly  attendance  at  this  busy  com- 
munity center  frequently  exceeds  two  thousand. 
Winnetka  Church  believes  in  serving  every  need 
of  the  community.  Its  buildings  have  become  a 
center  of  local  activity.  Its  two  ministers  are 
busy  men  in  the  large  service  that  they  are 
rendering.  The  story  of  this  church  is  an  in- 
spiration to  any  one  who  learns  of  its  high  de- 
gree of  efficiency  and  of  its  extended  service 
in  manifold  ways  to  satisfy  fully  the  demands 
upon  it  of  the  entire  community  life. 

The  record  of  Worth  M.  Tippy's  achievement 
in  Cleveland  is  inspiration  to  any  city  pastor  as 
to  what  the  Social  Service  idea  will  do  for  his 
church.^  The  Winnetka  experience  will  nerve  the 
small  town  and  suburban  pastors  to  undertake 

*  See  Dr.  Tippy's  most  inviting  account  of  his  work  in  Cleveland, 
as  he  tells  it  in  his  book,  '« The  Church  a  Community  Force." 


ITS  PHYSICAL  PLANT  89 

great    things    for   the   Lord.     But   the   country 
church  really  needs  the  Social  Service  idea  most. 

Our  country  churches  are  dying 
mSt  ™nd       fast-     The  social  life  of  the  coun- 

tryside  is  degenerating.  The  old 
social  occasions,  the  quilting  parties,  the  corn 
shuckings,  the  log-rollings,  the  wheat-threshings, 
as  we  have  said,  are  gone  and  with  them  has 
gone  the  opportunity  for  the  young  to  meet  in 
wholesome  social  relations.  The  results  are  de- 
plorable. The  young  men  of  the  city  have  shown 
up  better  than  those  from  the  country  under  the 
operation  of  the  selective  draft,  and  strange  as  it 
may  seem  the  social  diseases  are  more  frequent 
among  them.  Where  there  is  no  high-toned  so- 
cial life,  this  lecherous  thing  has  always  hap- 
pened. Our  nation  must  go  the  way  of  its  pred- 
ecessors, unless  the  matter  is  speedily  remedied. 
The  church  at  the  center  will  relieve  the  situation 
and  save  its  own  life  by  effectively  serving  its 
own  community.  And  many  country  churches 
are,  we  are  glad  to  record,  understanding  their 
duty  and  meeting  their  obligations  in  this  re- 
gard. Here  is  a  personal  letter  from  the  pastor 
of  one  of  them,  typical  of  many.  It  will  stir  the 
heart  and  inspire  to  noble  effort.  It  is  from  Rev. 
H.  H.  Pittman,  Rollo,  111.,  pastor  of  a  Congrega- 
tional Social  Service  Church  in  the  open  country. 
Brother  Pittman  says : 

"  It  was  in  191 2  that  this  community  started  to 


90  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

claim  its  inheritance.     The  Rollo  Consolidated 

School,  at  that  time  the  finest  country  school  in 

'the    United   States,    was   erected 

And  Rev.  H.  H.  ^^^  began  the  movement  towards 
Pittman  at  Rollo  ....  .  ^    , 

unity  m  this  region.     Before  that 

time  the  interests  of  the  people  were  scat- 
tered to  the  towns  lying  on  the  border  of  this 
township  where  their  children  were  attending 
high  school.  Gradually,  since  then,  there  has 
come  the  localizing  of  interest  and  effort  in  this 
center.  This  school  has  had  five  wonderful  years 
of  activity  and  has  proven  itself  to  be  the  solu- 
tion, not  only  of  the  educational  problem  of  the 
country,  but  also  of  the  social  and  cultural.  But 
I  take  it  that  you  wish  to  know  of  the  church  and 
its  contribution.  So  I  hasten  to  write  of  its 
share. 

"  The  school  was  born  up  out  of  the  life  of  the 
church.  Those  who  pushed  most  faithfully  for 
the  school  were  the  people  of  the  church  and  un- 
til the  last  year  all  of  the  members  of  the  board 
of  directors  have  been  prominent  members  of  the 
church.  I  feel  that  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the 
church  gave  birth  to  the  school. 

"  As  soon  as  the  fine  new  school  building  was 
erected  the  church  people  began  to  make  com- 
parisons as  to  equipment  and  made  up  their 
minds  that  the  church  must  measure  up  to  the 
school.  It  was  about  this  time  that  the  tail  end 
of  a  cyclone  came  along  and  assisted  the  mem- 


ITS  PHYSICAL  PLANT  9i 

bers  in  their  deliberations  as  to  whether  the 
church  should  be  remodelled  or  a  new  edifice 
erected.  With  the  old  building  a  partial  wreck 
they  decided  on  a  new  structure.  This  was 
erected  and  dedicated  in  June,  1914,  at  an  ap- 
proximate cost  of  $15,000.  The  indebtedness 
was  cleared  away.  At  the  same  time  the  people 
looked  a  little  farther  and  planned  for  a  parson- 
age, and  when  the  church  was  dedicated  the  par- 
sonage was  well  on  the  way.  It  was  complete 
in  August,  costing  a  little  over  $5,000.  There 
is  some  indebtedness  on  this  building. 

**  In  the  last  three  years  and  a  half  the  mem- 
bership has  increased  from  60  to  145,  and  the 
budget  from  $700  to  $1,900  for  local  expenses. 
The  church  purchased  an  auto  for  the  minister 
and  pays  him  a  salary  of  $1,500  and  parsonage. 

"  One  of  the  most  flourishing  groups  in  the 
church  circle  is  the  Rollo  Young  Men's  Club 
which  was  organized  last  fall.  There  are  over 
twenty  members  in  this  group.  At  the  outset 
only  two  were  members  of  the  church.  Now  all 
but  one  are  members.  They  conduct  the  Sun- 
day evening  series,  known  as  Pleasant  Sunday 
Evenings  at  Rollo. 

"  The  church  and  the  school  work  together  in 
perfect  harmony,  and  plan  never  to  conflict  in 
their  activities.  I  appear  at  the  school  chapel 
service  every  Monday  morning  and  have  an  op- 
portunity for  fellowship  with  the  students  and 


92  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

faculty  at  all  times.  Before  work  opens  this  fall 
we  will  have  organized  the  community  into  a 
Community  League  with  a  representative  Coun- 
cil to  direct  all  the  activities  of  the  community. 
The  secretary  of  the  Council  will  keep  the  calen- 
dar of  the  community  and  every  one  will  refer 
dates  and  affairs  of  every  sort  to  her.  This  will 
give  place  for  everything.  For,  in  spite  of  its 
reputation  for  being  quiet  and  lonely,  this  coun- 
tryside, at  least,  finds  time  inadequate  for  all  the 
matters  claiming  a  hearing.  It  is  not  infre- 
quent that  we  have  every  night  filled  with  pub- 
lic attractions  of  some  sort,  for  two  weeks  or 
more. 

"  The  community  has  a  motion  picture  equip- 
ment, a  Choral  Society,  a  Country  Club,  a  Mis- 
sionary Society,  a  gymnasium,  athletic  grounds 
and  holds  two  festivals  :  the  Spring  or  May  Festi- 
val at  the  school  and  the  Fall  or  Harvest  Home 
Festival  at  the  church.  Both  of  these  are  big  oc- 
casions. 

**  The  church  plans  also  to  give  courses  in  Bible 
History  and  Teaching  for  juniors  and  seniors  in 
the  high  school.  They  will  come  to  the  church 
for  instruction  and  will  receive  credit  in  the  high 
school." 

And  lest  you  might  consider  Rollo  an  isolated 
case,  here  is  another  (and  I  could  duplicate  these 
letters  many  times)  from  the  pastor  of  the  Baptist 
Church  of  Derby,  New  York,  the  Rev.  Robert  G. 


ITS  PHYSICAL  PLANT  93 

Leetch.     Brother  Leetch  writes  me  under  date 
of  May  1 8,  191 7,  as  follows  : 

"  As  touching  your  theme,  *  The  Social  Gospel 

and  Housing  the  Social  Service  Church,'  I  shall 

not  attempt  to  burden  you  with 

self  with  giving  you  briefly  the 
bare  facts  relating  to  our  work  in  the  Derby 
community. 

*']ust  five  years  ago,  June  first,  I  took  up  the 
work.  At  that  time  the  community  had  no 
organized  religious  or  social  work  in  it.  There 
had  been,  in  years  gone  by,  a  Congregational 
society  in  the  place,  but  this  had  ceased  to  exist 
and  its  building  was  closed  and  boarded  up. 
The  incoming  of  a  few  city  people  to  live  in  the 
community  revived  interest  in  the  church. 

**  Our  community  combines  a  strictly  rural, 
farming  section,  with  a  summer  colony  on  the  lake 
front.  The  church  buildings  are  in  the  open 
country,  about  two  miles  back  from  the  lake. 

"  Five  years  ago  there  was  no  bond  of  interest 
between  these  two  elements  of  the  population. 
The  country  people  were  living  widely  apart 
from  each  other,  with  little  or  no  consciousness 
of  common  interest.  There  was  no  center  in  all 
the  community  where  all  the  people  might  come 
together.  It  was  necessary  to  create  such  a 
center. 

"  The     church    building    was    restored,    and 


94  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

opened  for  regular  services.  We  purchased 
adjoining  property  which  was  improved  by  a 
very  large  barn  and  a  comfortable  farmhouse. 
These  buildings  were  remodelled.  The  farm- 
house has  become  the  manse,  and  the  large  barn 
has  been  converted  into  a  fine  community  house, 
at  the  cost  of  about  $25,000. 

*'We  have  laid  special  emphasis  upon  the 
social  aspect  of  our  work,  having  in  mind  always 
the  practical  needs  of  the  people  of  our  com- 
munity. 

*'  It  has  been  our  purpose  to  draw  the  people 
together,  at  this  common  center,  in  neighborly 
intercourse,  and  under  the  auspices  of  the  church, 
in  order  that  they  might  develop  a  conscious- 
ness of  their  common  interests  and  of  their  obli- 
gations to  each  other,  to  their  community,  and 
to  the  world  at  large.  We  have  aimed  to  show 
them  that  the  church  is  interested  in  all  that 
pertains  to  their  social  welfare,  and  in  so  doing, 
we  have  found  them  the  more  ready  to  believe 
in  and  to  follow  the  spiritual  leadership  of  the 
church.  By  our  emphasis  upon  the  social  in- 
terests of  the  people,  we  have  kept  the  church 
daily  in  the  foreground  of  the  community  life. 

•'  Our  community  house  is  separate  from  the 
church  building.  It  is  equipped  to  meet  the 
needs  of  our  community.  Other  equipment  can 
be  added  when  actually  needed.  The  equip- 
ment includes  assembly  hall,  social  room,  kitchen, 


ITS  PHYSICAL  PLANT  95 

pantries,  library,  women's  work  and  meeting 
room,  bowling  alleys,  billiard  room,  retiring 
rooms. 

**  A  motto  on  the  wall  of  the  social  room  reads, 
*  Get  acquainted  with  your  neighbor,  you  might 
like  him.'  " 

The  church  plant  of  the  churches  of  the  new 
time  will  embody  the  architectural  principles 
The  Central  Place  ^^^  ^^^  broad,  inclusive  Christian 
of  Such  a  Plant  Spirit  of  these  churches  which  as 
In  Community  Life  heralds  and  precursors  have  so 
beautifully  indicated  the  way.  Such  a  church 
plant  will  be  at  the  very  heart  of  the  personal 
and  community  life  and  of  it  no  man  should  be 
so  inappreciative  as  to  write  discourteously,  as 
did  the  editor  of  the  Craigin  (Kansas)  Observer 
when  recently  a  severe  wind  blew  down  the  only 
church  edifice  of  the  town :  **  We  are  fortunate 
indeed  that  the  wind-storm  which  blew  down  the 
church  Thursday  afternoon  did  no  real  damage." 
The  new  church  will  fill  such  a  commanding 
position  in  the  new  time  that  any  hurt  to  its 
plant  will  be  esteemed  a  dire  public  calamity. 


IV 
ITS  CHURCH  YEAR 

IN  1644  the  Puritan  Parliament  passed  an 
ordinance  strictly  forbidding  the  observance 
of  all  holy  days.  Even  Christmas  was  not 
excepted,  since  this  feast  day  was  of  pagan 
origin.  For  that  day  a  solemn  fast  was  pro- 
How  the  Puritans  claimed.  The  law  required  every- 
Regarded  Holy  body  to  go  to  work  on  that  day, 
^^*^*^  and   the   owner   of   every   closed 

shop  was  haled  before  the  judge  and  punished. 
The  Puritans  took  this  drastic  action  to  rid  re- 
ligion of  superstition  and  what  almost  ap- 
proached, if  it  did  not  actually  approach  it, 
idolatry.  The  Christian  Year,  by  which  is  meant 
the  keeping  of  the  feast  and  holy  days  and  the 
days  devoted  to  the  memory  of  certain  saints 
and  events  in  Christian  history,  had  become  not 
only  an  interference  and  often  a  tyranny,  but 
also  a  stench  and  an  injury  to  vital  Christian 
living.  The  Puritans  pruned  the  thing  and  even 
purified  the  Sabbath  till  it  looked  like  an  oak  of 
a  hundred  years  bereft  of  leaves  and  limbs,  a 
mere  defiant  trunk,  a  shadow  of  its  former 
strength  and  beauty. 

96 


ITS  CHURCH  YEAR  97 

The  Christian  Year  had  its  root  in  the  Hebrew 
festivals.  The  Passover,  Pentecost,  Tabernacles, 
The  Roots  of  the  The  Feast  of  the  Trumpets,  of 
Christian  Year  The  New  Year,  Purim,  Dedica- 
Were  Hebraic  ^[^^    or    Feast    of    Lights,    The 

Great  Day  of  Atonement — these  great  festivals 
among  a  people  whose  religion  was  national  and 
social  rather  than  personal  and  individual  served 
to  round  out  the  year  in  harmony  with  their 
early  domestic  life  and  reverently  to  recall  their 
national  history.  In  addition  to  these,  the  ec- 
clesiastical authorities  added  others  to  com- 
memorate some  great  event,  as  for  example  that 
which  preserved  the  memory  of  the  destruction 
of  the  Temple  and  city  by  fire  on  the  seventh 
of  the  fifth  month,  the  month  Ab,  or  our  July- 
August,  in  586  B.  C.  Zechariah  mentions  other 
feasts  in  the  fourth,  seventh,  and  tenth  months. 
The  second  and  fifth  days  of  every  week  were 
also  set  aside  as  fasts.  In  regard  to  the  Jewish 
Ritual  Year,  Dr.  Edersheim,  a  clergyman  of  the 
Church  of  England,  but  of  Jewish  parentage  and 
education,  thus  writes : 

**  There  could  not  be  national  history,  or  even 
romance,  to  compare  with  that  by  which  a 
Of  Whose  Value  Dr.  Jewish  mother  might  hold  her 
Edersheim  Speaks  child  entranced.  And  it  was  his 
Appreciatively  q^^    history— of   his    tribe,   clan, 

perhaps  family  ;  of  the  past  indeed,  but  of  the 
present,  and  still  more  of  the  glorious  future. 


98  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

Long  before  he  could  go  to  school,  or  even 
synagogue,  the  private  and  united  prayers  and 
the  domestic  rites,  whether  of  the  weekly  Sab- 
bath or  of  the  domestic  seasons,  would  indelibly 
impress  themselves  upon  the  boy's  mind.  In 
mid-winter  there  was  the  festive  illumination  in 
each  home.  In  most  houses,  the  first  night  only 
one  candle  was  lit,  the  next  two,  and  so  on  till 
the  eighth  day ;  and  the  child  would  learn  that 
this  was  commemorative  and  symbolic  of  the 
Dedication  of  the  Temple,  its  purgation, 
and  the  restoration  of  its  services  by  the  lion- 
hearted  Judas  the  Maccabee.  Next  came,  in 
earliest  spring,  the  merry  time  of  PURIM,  the 
feast  of  Esther  and  of  Israel's  deliverance  through 
her,  with  its  good  cheer  and  boisterous  enjoy- 
ments. Although  the  PASSOVER  might  call  the 
rest  of  the  family  to  Jerusalem,  the  rigid  exclusion 
of  all  leaven  during  the  week  could  not  pass 
without  its  impressions.  Then,  after  the  FEAST 
OF  THE  Weeks,  came  bright  summer.  But  its 
golden  harvest  and  rich  fruits  would  remind  of 
the  early  dedication  of  the  first  and  best  to  the 
Lord,  and  of  the  solemn  processions  by  which  it 
was  carried  up  to  Jerusalem.  As  autumn  seared 
the  leaves.  The  Feast  of  the  New  Year 
(Trumpets)  spoke  of  the  casting  of  man's  ac- 
counts in  the  great  Book  of  Judgment,  and  the 
fixing  of  the  destiny  for  good  or  for  evil.  Then 
followed  the  feast  of  The  Day  of  Atonement, 


ITS  CHURCH  YEAR  99 

with  its  tremendous  solemnities,  the  memory  of 
which  could  never  fade  from  the  mind  or  the 
imagination  ;  and  last  of  all,  in  the  FEAST  OF 
THE  Tabernacles  there  were  the  strange  leafy 
booths  in  which  they  lived  and  joyed,  keeping 
their  harvest-thanksgiving,  and  praying  and  long- 
ing for  the  better  harvest  of  a  renewed  world." 

But  the  thing  happened  with  respect  to  these 
ritualistic  feasts  and  fasts,  which  always  happens 
But  Formality  where  overemphasis  is  placed  on 

Stifled  spiritual  ceremony^ — they  became  formal 
Aspiration  g^j^^j  connection  between  the  wor- 

shipper and  the  God  of  the  feasts  and  fasts  was 
weakened,  if  not  altogether  destroyed.  Hear 
the  eloquent  denunciation  of  the  whole  thing  by 
Israel's  greatest  prophet :  *'  Bring  no  more  vain 
oblations  ;  incense  is  an  abomination  to  me ;  the 
new  moons  and  Sabbaths,  the  calling  of  assem- 
blies, I  cannot  away  with  ;  it  is  iniquity,  even 
the  solemn  assembly.  Your  new  moons  and 
your  solemn  fasts  my  soul  hateth.  They  are  a 
trouble  to  me ;  I  am  weary  to  bear  them." 
Ritual  had  shackled  the  soul  of  the  worshippers 
and  dimmed  their  eyes.  When  Jesus  came,  He 
found  the  holy  Sabbath  a  burden  to  men's  souls, 
and  fast  days  prostituted  into  the  means  of  gaudy 
self-advertisement  of  personal  piety.  He  de- 
nounced the  whole  regime  and  insisted  on  the 
strange  doctrine  of  a  new  birth,  which  even  the 
open-minded  Nicodemus  could  not  comprehend. 


too  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

After  the  crucifixion  and  resurrection  of  Jesus 
His  followers  naturally  kept  sacred  in  their 
The  Two  Elements  niemory  the  characteristic  experi- 
of  the  Infant  ences  of  His  earthly  life  and  per- 

Church  of  Christ  petuated  them  in  occasions  of 
religious  observance.  They  did  not,  however, 
break  entirely  with  the  Jewish  feasts.  The 
Church  was  composed  of  two  elements — the 
Jewish  and  the  Gentile  converts.  The  former 
were  led  by  Peter  and  the  latter  by  Paul.  The 
Traditionalists  and  the  New  Lights,  the  Radicals 
and  the  Standpatters,  the  Adherents  of  the  Faith 
once  delivered  to  the  Saints  and  the  Progressive 
Modernists,  were  in  constant  disagreement  with 
each  other  then,  as  now.  Paul's  constant  and 
noble  pleas  for  freedom  from  the  law  did  not 
mean  release  from  the  moral  law,  but  from  the 
ritualistic  customs,  the  new  moons,  the  sacrifices, 
the  fasts,  that  substituted  in  men's  minds  for  the 
broken  and  contrite  heart  which  God  exacts  for 
the  worshipper's  release  from  sin.  Men  were  so 
prone  everywhere  to  ritualistic  worship  that  they 
could  not  rid  themselves  of  its  grasp.  The 
Jewish  Christians  could  not  appreciate  Paul's 
position.  From  their  babyhood  they  had  been 
drilled  in  the  solemnities  of  the  ritual,  as  Dr. 
Edersheim's  sympathetic  and  experiential  esti- 
mate of  its  influence  on  life  as  quoted  above  has 
shown.  It  was  hard  to  get  release  from  such 
influence.     They  insisted  that  the  temple  worship 


ITS  CHURCH  YEAR  101 

and  the  fasts  and  feasts  go  on.  In  every  church 
the  issue  was  joined  between  heart-worship  and 
ritualistic  performance.  Even  in  Paul's  Galatian 
Church,  whose  members  were  so  devoted  to  him 
that  they  would,  according  to  Paul's  own  testi- 
mony, have  plucked  out  their  eyes  and  given 
them  to  him,  after  an  invasion  by  the  Judaizers 
or  Ritualistic  Party  in  Paul's  absence, — even  in 
this  church  the  tendency  to  formalism  became  so 
pronounced  that  Paul  feels  constrained  to  write 
to  them  this  stern  admonition  :  "  Oh,  foolish  Ga- 
latians,  who  hath  bewitched  you,  that  ye  should 
not  obey  the  truth  ? — After  that  ye  have  known 
God,  or  known  of  God,  how  turn  ye  again  to  the 
weak  and  beggarly  elements,  whereunto  ye  de- 
sire again  to  be  in  bondage  ?  Ye  observe  days, 
and  months,  and  times,  and  years.  I  am  afraid 
of  you,  lest  I  have  bestowed  upon  you  labor  in 
vain."  And  yet  the  demand  for  recognition  of 
the  old  was  so  strong  that  Paul  himself  twenty- 
five  years  after  his  new  birth  of  freedom  from  it, 
in  the  spirit  of  Christian  love  and  willingness  to 
do  anything  to  unite  the  two  warring  parties  of 
the  infant  churches,  was  overpersuaded  to  enter 
into  the  Temple  for  purification — a  compromise 
with  truth  that  cost  him  four  years  in  prison, 
shipwreck  and  perhaps  his  life.  When  ritualism 
has  fastened  its  tentacles  on  a  people,  blind, 
fanatic,  Pharisaic  in  their  zeal  for  the  things  that 
perish,  appallingly  fatal  becomes  their  inability 


J02  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

to  discern  those  things  that  abide,  to  comprehend 
the  things  that  lead  straight  to  the  God  Whom 
they  ignorantly  seek  and  find  not,  because  of  the 
maze  through  which  they  look. 

But  the  ritualists  won.     Unable  to  bring  over 
the   Jewish    Ritualistic  Year  into  the  Christian 

Church,  they  transplanted  its 
In  Their  Conflict  .      ,  ,  r,    ,  ^       .^    ,, 

Ritualism  Won  ^^^^^    ^^^    ^^^^^^^    ^"    to    it    the 

branches  of  the  Master's  climac- 
teric experiences,  and  as  the  centuries  advanced 
added  thereto  the  outstanding  events  in  Chris- 
tian Church  history.  They  urged  that  Christ's 
own  example  in  attendance  on  the  great  festivals 
and  His  institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper  were 
justification  for  them,  and  they  were  not  wholly 
in  error.  What  more  natural  than  to  keep  alive 
by  religious  observance  the  great  Life  and  its 
greatest  experiences — the  Life  that  had  made 
plain  to  men  the  way  to  fellowship  with  God  ? 
Certainly  the  day  of  His  Resurrection,  that  day 
that  offered  hope  to  every  aspiring  soul,  certainly 
that  day  should  be  kept,  and  it  was  kept  for  a 
long  time  as  a  sister  day  to  the  Sabbath,  later 
supplanting  the  Sabbath  as  the  day  of  rest  in  the 
Christian  week.  And  the  season  of  His  Passion, 
crowned  by  His  Crucifixion,  certainly  the  devout 
disciple  would  cherish  and  commemorate  that. 
And  the  great  day  of  spiritual  baptism,  the  day 
of  Pentecost,  this  day  was  holy  and  this  experi- 
ence must  be  preserved  in  solemn  feast.     That 


ITS  CHURCH  YEAR  103 

these  latter  two  coincided  with  the  Jewish  Fes- 
tivals of  the  Passover  and  the  Feast  of  Weeks, 
too,  made  it  easy  to  institute  them  as  Christian 
festivals,  and  in  a  measure  appeased  the  resent- 
ment of  the  Jewish  Christians  at  the  threatening 
break  with  the  ritual  to  which  they  were  so  com- 
pletely devoted.  As  time  went  on,  other  Chris- 
tian festivals,  fasts,  celebrations,  holy  days,  were 
provided  in  the  Christian  Church.  Worship  be- 
came linked  with  the  calendar  and  itself  a  science 
rather  than  an  art.  It  takes  a  scholar  to  under- 
stand the  intricacies  of  the  calendar  that  grew 
up  in  the  unfolding  centuries.  When  I  speak  of 
Lunar  Cycle,  Metonic  Cycle,  Golden  Number  or 
Prime,  Paschal  Moon,  Epact,  Dominical  Letter, 
Bissextile,  Ferial  and  Festal,  Vigil  and  Eve, 
Octave,  Movable  and  Immovable  Feasts, — all  of 
which  enter  into  the  Christian  Year  and  all  of 
which  must  be  understood  to  understand  it,  you 
see  how  complicated  the  observance  of  the  way 
of  salvation  became — a  way  so  simple  that  a 
wayfaring  man,  though  a  fool,  need  not  err 
therein.  And  yet  some  who  read  no  doubt  have 
erred  therein  to  their  own  confusion  in  attempt- 
ing to  worship  in  a  congregation  given  to  the 
calendar  in  its  public  services.  Even  those 
churches  that  adhere  to  the  calendar  would  be 
confused  to  visit  each  other's  communions,  be- 
cause the  Roman  calendar  is  new  style,  the  Greek 
and  Russian  old. 


J04  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

There  is  great  variety  also  in  the  details  of  the 
calendars,  but  the  central  principle  is  the  Incar- 
The  Intricacies  of  nation.  This  great  central  theme 
the  Christian  Cai-  runs  through  it  like  a  river  of 
endar  Development  goj^  through  pictures  of  silver, 
Standing  out  like  a  great  sentinel  in  the  calendar 
of  the  Christian  Year.  Advent,  Circumcision, 
Epiphany,  Presentation  in  the  Temple,  Annun- 
ciation, Transfiguration,  Easter,  Ascension,  Whit- 
sunday, and  Trinity — the  people  who  enter  into 
the  celebration  of  these  great  events  and  occa- 
sions ought  certainly  to  know  the  Lord's  life. 
But  the  end  is  not  yet.  There  are  the  days  of 
the  various  saints  by  name  as  well  as  the  feast 
of  all  the  saints,  All  Hallows  or  Hallowe'en, 
Red-letter  and  Black-letter  Days,  the  days  given 
to  the  saints,  Andrew,  Thomas,  Stephen,  John 
the  Evangelist,  and  the  Holy  Innocents,  the 
Feast  of  St.  Michael  or  Michaelmas,  the  fasts, 
Lent,  Pre-Lent,  Ash  Wednesday,  Shrove  Tues- 
day, Mid-Lent  or  Refreshment  Sunday,  Palm 
Sunday,  Maundy  Thursday,  Good  Friday,  Em- 
ber and  Rogation  Days,  Fridays,  Vigils  and 
Eves,  Masses  of  various  kinds.  1  am  not  sure 
that  I  have  included  all  the  complicated  ecclesi- 
astical machinery,  by  which  the  worshipper  is 
to  have  access  to  God,  Who  is  a  spirit  and  a 
person,  and  desires  to  be  worshipped  in  spirit 
and  in  truth.  If  the  worshipper  does  not  have 
to  seek  certain  places  to  worship,  can  he  reason- 


ITS  CHURCH  YEAR  JOS 

ably  be  expected  to  subject  himself  to  the  intri- 
cacies of  such  a  labyrinthine  calendar  in  its 
manner  ? 

But  the  end  is  not  yet.  Rules  are  prescribed 
for  the  decorations  to  be  employed  in  observing 
With  Some  of  ^^^  events  of  the  calendar.    In  the 

Its  Bewildering  ninth  century  the  rules  as  to  col- 
Minutis  Qi-g  became  standardized  or  ritual- 

ized. Of  this  important  matter  Charles  Walker, 
in  **  The  Ritual  Reason  Why,"  says,  "  The  usual 
colors  employed  in  modern  times  are  white,  red, 
violet,  green  and  black.  According  to  the  old 
English  use,  blue,  brown,  gray  and  yellow  were 
used.  White  is  used  on  all  the  great  festivals 
of  our  Lord,  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  and  of  all 
the  saints  who  did  not  suffer  martyrdom ;  white 
being  the  color  appropriate  for  joy,  and  signify- 
ing purity.  Red  is  used  on  the  feast  of  the 
martyrs,  typifying  that  they  shed  their  blood  for 
the  testimony  of  Jesus,  and  at  Whitsuntide,  when 
the  Holy  Ghost  descended  in  the  likeness  of 
fire.  Violet  is  the  penitential  color,  and  is  used 
in  Advent,  Lent,  Vigils,  etc.  Green  is  the  ordi- 
nary color  for  days  that  are  neither  fasts  nor 
feasts,  as  being  the  pervading  color  of  nature,  or 
as  typifying  the  Resurrection.  Black  is  made 
use  of  for  funerals  or  on  Good  Friday.  (Many, 
however,  prefer  to  use  violet  at  funerals.) 

"  In  the  old  English  use,  red  was  employed  on 
all  Sundays  through  the  year,  except  from  Easter 


t06  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

to  Whitsunday,  unless  a  festival  superseded  the 
Sunday  services.  The  same  color  served  for  Ash 
Wednesday,  Good  Friday,  Maundy  Thursday, 
and  Easter  and  Whitsun  Eves.  White  was  em- 
ployed throughout  Eastertide,  whether  a  Sunday 
or  a  Saint's  Day.  Yellow  was  employed  for  the 
Feast  of  the  Confessors.  Blue  was  used  indif- 
ferently with  green ;  brown  or  gray,  with  violet 
for  penitential  times." 

Very  naturally,  very  properly,  very  rightly,  the 
Puritans  broke  with  this  Christian  Ritual  Year. 
With  All  Which  ^^^  ^^^  I  cannot  think  of  return- 
the  Puritans  ing  to  it.    Our  theme  at  this  time, 

Properly  Broke  j^^  Church  Year  of  the  new  time, 
has  its  root  in  that  Christian  Ritual  Year  just 
as  it  in  turn  had  its  root  in  the  Jewish  Ritual 
Year,  and  while  we  need  such  a  year,  we  must 
not  standardize  it  till  it  becomes  a  tyranny  over 
freemen  and  shackles  on  progress.  We  recog- 
nize the  danger  that  besets  our  pathway  and 
should  be  able  to  escape  its  deadening  pall.  But 
order,  not  confusion,  system,  not  chaos  is  God's 
way,  and  we  Protestant  Christians  must  admit, 
even  though  reluctandy,  that  we  have  something 
to  learn  from  the  shoot  that  came  forth  out  of 
the  stock  of  Jesse  and  that  branched  too  pro- 
fusely in  the  calendar  of  the  Christian  Ritual 
Year.  Every  business  has  its  fiscal  year.  The 
Church  must  have  its  year  too,  and  must  have 
it  in  accordance  with  the  sacred  truth  recorded 


ITS  CHURCH  YEAR  J07 

in  Ecclesiastes  3:1;  **  To  everything  there  is  a 
season,  and  a  time  to  every  purpose  under  the 
heaven." 

The  Church  Year  will  be  conditioned  by  the 
natural  year,  by  Christian  history,  and  by  a  due  re- 
What  Will  Now  gard  for  the  successful  administra- 
Condition  the  tion  of  the  Kingdom.     The  sea- 

Church  Year  gQj^g  Qf  j-^g  natural  year  and  the 

great  outstanding  events  of  the  Church  will 
greatly  determine  it,  and  in  it  seed-time  and 
harvest  will  naturally  follow  each  other.  Let  us 
understand  that  this  Church  Year  is  to  be  far- 
sighted  and  alert,  not  haphazard  and  waiting  for 
something  to  turn  up ;  that  it  is  to  be  compre- 
hensive and  inclusive,  not  one-sided  and  spo- 
radic, but  providing  for  evangelism,  missions, 
education  and  social  service,  as  well  as  for  wor- 
ship in  the  technical  sense;  that  it  is  to  be 
based  on  achievement,  not  theory,  relying  for 
its  elements  on  the  experience  of  successful 
efforts  in  the  churches,  on  the  efforts  God  has 
evidently  owned,  because  He  has  blessed  them 
with  gratifying  results  ;  that  it  is  to  be  flexible, 
not  incoherent  and  unstable,  but  genuinely  adapt- 
able to  new  conditions  and  situations  as  they 
shall  arise,  and  affording  that  wholesome  variety 
which  is  the  spice  of  life  and  which  God  in  His 
natural  world  so  abundantly  provides  ;  that  it  is 
to  be  Kingdom-wide  and  not  simply  adapted  to 
the  local  church  and  its  local  needs,  ignoring 


tOS  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

the  other  bodies  of  Christian  workers,  and  so 

subject  to  modification  in  order  best  to  enable 

the   local   church    to  cooperate  with  the  whole 

Brotherhood  of  Christ's  people  and  bring  in  the 

day  of  Christian  union. 

This  Church  Year  will  provide  for  the  growth 

in  numbers  of  the  Church  both  here  and  abroad, 

for  the  raising  of  funds  for  current 
Items  it  Must  ,    ,  ,  , 

Provide  for  expenses    and   benevolences,   for 

Christian  fellowship  and  growth  in 
grace,  and  for  genuine  worship  as  the  expression 
of  the  soul's  inner  longing  for  God.  It  is  finan- 
cial, fraternal,  social,  educational,  spiritual,  and  if 
there  be  any  other  good,  it  must  be  compre- 
hended appropriately  in  it,  for  this  Church  Year 
is  to  bring  to  the  worshipper  all  that  is  good  and 
wholesome  in  God's  universe,  and  to  train  him 
not  only  to  worship,  but  equally  to  serve,  and, 
what  is  more,  to  serve  efficiently. 

We  shall  begin  to  examine  its  possibilities  in 
the  fall.     The  lethargic  summer  season,  with  its 

vacation  breaks,  is  now  over.  The 
in^theFau"  flock    is    reassembled   again.     A 

new  year  is  beginning.  Then  be- 
gin. The  members  are  ready  to  work.  Set  them 
to  it.  Let  the  month  of  October  be  set  aside  for 
a  Go-to-Church  Campaign,  wherein  the  aim  shall 
be  not  only  to  increase  church  attendance,  but  to 
boost  every  department  of  the  church  work.  Let 
the  last  Sunday  in  September  be  a  Visitation 


ITS  CHURCH  YEAR  J09 

Sunday.  There  should  be  four  of  these  during 
the  year.  This  idea  came  from  the  Every  Mem- 
ber Canvass,  as  its  natural  by-product.  There  is 
danger  that  the  membership  will  regard  the 
Every  Member  Canvass  as  merely  a  money  get- 
ting scheme,  if  it  is  the  only  visitation  during  the 
year.  So  from  twenty  to  thirty  per  cent,  of  the 
membership  of  progressive  churches  is  now  con- 
stituted into  a  Visitation  Board,  and  at  least  four 
times  a  year  takes  a  Sunday  afternoon  for  an 
Every  Member  Visitation.  These  visits  are  to 
be  social  and  spiritual.  Let  one  of  them  be 
placed  on  the  Sunday  afternoon  before  Rally 
Day,  or  before  the  beginning  of  Rally  Month. 
This  will  be  a  good  beginning.  Such  a  Visita- 
tion Campaign  will  require  careful  planning  and 
persistent  training.  If  it  is  properly  cared  for  and 
conducted,  the  people  will  come.  Will  they  con- 
tinue to  come  ?  Not  unless  they  are  set  to  work. 
Here  again  skillful  planning  and  patient  tactful- 
ness  are  required.  During  October,  Rally  Month, 
the  minister  will  preach  on  Christian  stewardship 
and  service,  and  set  in  motion  plans  to  enlist 
every  member  of  the  congregation  in  the  line  of 
Christian  work  to  which  he  is  best  adapted.  The 
volunteer  system  will  not  work  here.  Universal 
draft  is  the  only  hope  and  the  only  salvation. 
Throughout  the  month  of  October  the  work  of 
visitation  must  be  kept  up,  not  in  a  grand  drive 
as  on  the  last  Sunday  in  September,  but  in  skir- 


no  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

mishes  all  along  the  line,  as  there  is  opportunity 
of  battle  with  carelessness  and  indifference. 
During  the  months  of  November  and  December 
the  idea  will  be  to  deepen  the  sense  of  obligation 
to  serve  and  to  hold  the  new  recruits  faithful  to 
their  enlistment  choices. 

The  second  clearly  marked  drive  will  begin 
near  Christmas,  the  glad  season  that  marks  the 
With  a  Second  advent  of  our  Lord.     A  campaign 

New  Season  at  will  be  launched  to  continue  till 
Christmas  March,  its  purpose  being  to  gain 

power  in  the  realm  of  Christian  education  and 
service.  The  Visitation  Board  should  on  New 
Year's  Sunday,  or  New  Year's  Day  again  visit 
every  home.  The  slogan  of  this  visit  should  be 
**  Begin  the  year  Right — Begin  it  with  God  and 
Live  it  with  Him  ! "  Training  classes  for  various 
lines  of  church  work  and  Christian  service  in  the 
community  should  begin,  brief  courses  of  three 
months,  but  comprehensive,  efficient  and  effect- 
ive. The  Church  must  redeem  Christmas  and 
New  Year  from  dissipation.  It  cannot  do  so  by 
criticisms,  but  by  constructive  methods  of  posi- 
tive substitution  of  better  things  in  the  place  of 
the  dissipations  now  so  spiritually  devitalizing. 

A  third  great  drive  will  articulate  with  Easter. 
It  is  the  season  of  ingathering.  Ever  since  the 
Church  Year  began  in  September,  the  whole  effort 
has  had  in  view  this  time  of  decision  for  Christ, 
hallowed    by   His   sacrifice   for   our   sins.     The 


ITS  CHURCH  YEAR  iU 

fruits  must  be  gathered  and  conserved  before 
summer.     Let  it  not  be  simply  a  time  of  new 

births    into    the    Kingdom,    but 
And  the  Third  „  r     , 

A  d  E  t  r  equally  a  season  oi  deeper  conse- 
cration on  the  part  of  professing 
Christians,  and  of  securing  recruits  for  the  min- 
istry, the  mission  work,  and  other  forms  of  Chris- 
tian service.  It  should  be  preceded  by  special 
services  of  evangelistic  nature  and  by  an  inten- 
sive visitation  campaign  of  personal  work.  The 
minister  cannot  do  all  this  work.  He  will  do  his 
part,  and  more  than  his  part,  but  the  membership 
must  be  enlisted  and  trained. 

Before  the  first  of  June  and  usually  in  April, 
the  attention  of  the  congregation  becomes  riveted 
Caring  Rightly  for  ^^  the  financial  administration  of 
the  Kingdom's  Finan=  the  Kingdom.  The  minister  will 
ciai  Administration  pleach  on  God's  claim  on  our  in- 
comes and  on  ourselves.  The  Every  Member 
Canvass  will  be  prepared  for  by  the  standard 
methods  known  to  all  church-progressives,  end- 
ing with  a  great  layman's  rally  and  speaking 
session  just  before  the  canvass  for  funds  begins. 
It  will  be  the  fourth  visitation  of  the  year,  and 
should  yield  gracious  results,  if  the  other  visits 
have  succeeded  in  generating  in  all  the  feeling 
that  this  church  is  interested  in  us  and  not  simply 
in  securing  our  money  for  its  own  maintenance. 
During  the  summer  those  who  remain  at  home 
— and  more   remain  than  go  away — those  who 


U2  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

remain  at  home  must  be  utilized  and  their  energy 
conserved.  It  is  the  social  time  par  excellence 
And  Utilizing  the  ^nd  of  the  out-of-doors.  Picnics, 
Good  Old  Summer  auto  and  boat  excursions,  pag- 
Time  eants,  lawn  services  on  the  Sab- 

bath evenings,  outdoor  meetings  of  the  different 
societies  and  circles  and  classes,  athletic  meets, 
etc.,  etc.,  etc.  In  these  things  the  church  will 
lead  and  direct,  since  it  must  minister  to  all  life. 
The  children  must  be  cared  for.  They  are  out 
of  school.  Why  not  have  "  A  Church  Vacation 
School,"  utilizing  the  children,  the  church  plant, 
and  the  public  school  teachers,  and  supplement- 
ing the  all-too-inefiicient  religious  instruction 
now  provided  by  the  Sunday-school  ?  One  de- 
nomination in  Chicago  last  year  enrolled  4,700 
children  in  twenty-four  such  "  Daily  Vacation 
Bible  Schools"  for  children  under  sixteen.  In- 
dustry can  be  encouraged  by  organizing  canning 
clubs  of  various  kinds,  or  garden  clubs,  or  potato 
clubs,  under  voluntary  leadership  of  competent 
Christian  lay-workers,  and  with  splendid  con- 
servation of  energy  and  consequent  rich  fruitage 
in  Christian  character.  In  these  war  times  Red 
Cross  work  is  always  in  order.  Large  numbers 
of  college  students  are  at  home  and  many  times 
theological  seminary  students  are  at  leisure. 
Set  them  to  work.  Doctors  and  lawyers  have 
more  leisure  than  usual.  Set  them  to  work. 
Make  every  effort  to  reduce  to  the  minimum  the 


ITS  CHURCH  YEAR  n3 

loss  of  momentum  and  enthusiasm  now  so  gen- 
erally attendant  upon  the  good  old  summer  time. 
Eternal  vigilance  will  be  the  price  of  success. 
The  church  must  pay  that  price. 

Even  those  who  go  away  can  be  conserved, 
and  instead  of  the  summer  season  being  an 
Providing  to  Con-  Occasion  for  despair,  it  can  be 
serve  Even  Those  among  the  gladdest  Seasons  of 
Going  Away  for  a  the  Church  Year,  and  perhaps  its 
^'*^'"'  most  fruitful.     The  auto  and  the 

desire  for  a  change  of  scene  and  the  custom  of 
week-end  visits  can  be  utilized  for  spiritual  pur- 
poses at  country  places,  amid  the  mountains,  by 
the  seaside  and  along  the  lake  fronts,  and  in 
the  military  camps.  Devout  Christian  men  and 
women,  when  properly  approached,  will  be  glad 
to  place  themselves  and  their  cars  at  the  disposal 
of  a  church  engaged  vigorously  in  a  program  of 
social  service  like  this.  Such  service  is  genuine 
extension  bureau  work  of  vitally  spiritual  poten- 
tiality and  offers  a  challenge  worth  serious  con- 
sideration to  the  framers  of  the  Church  Year. 

Of  course  the  Christian  Sabbath  must  be  pre- 
served in  its  integrity.  Sabbath  observance  is 
And  Certainly  Con-  fundamental  in  the  Christian  life, 
structiveiy  Keeping  Any  attempt  to  desecrate  it  must 
tlie  Sabbatfi  ^^g   Stoutly  resisted    not   only  by 

vigorous  protests,  but  by  constructive  positive 
suggestion.  Let  us  not  forget  that  the  Christian 
life  is  not  a  negative,  but  a  positive  thing.     The 


n4  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

teacher  of  Christian  truth  must  employ  negatives, 
'tis  true,  but  merely  to  empty  the  house  of  evil 
is  to  do  worse  than  not  to  empty  it  at  all.  The 
Christian  would-be  reformer  who  does  this  is 
doing  the  man  he  would  help  a  serious  hurt  and 
making  for  him  the  way  of  true  redemption 
harder  and  more  difficult.  This  is  a  hard  say- 
ing, but  hear  the  words  of  the  Lord  in  Matthew 
12:43-45:  **  When  the  unclean  spirit  is  gone 
out  of  a  man,  he  walketh  through  dry  places, 
seeking  rest,  and  findeth  none.  Then  he  saith, 
I  will  return  unto  my  house  from  whence  I  came 
out :  and  when  he  is  come,  he  findeth  it  empty, 
swept,  and  garnished.  Then  he  goeth  and 
taketh  with  him  seven  other  spirits  more  wicked 
than  himself  and  they  enter  in  and  dwell  there  : 
and  the  last  state  of  that  man  is  worse  than  the 
first."  Even  so  is  it  with  the  man  whose  heart  is 
cleansed,  but  whose  energy  is  not  directed  into 
positive  ways  of  righteousness.  This  has  vital 
bearing  on  evangelism.  The  follow-up  work  is 
the  price  of  permanent  uplift  from  any  evangel- 
istic effort. 

The  action  of  Massachusetts  in  permitting 
farming  on  the  Sabbath  as  a  war-measure  is 
Making  it  Far  More  inexcusable  folly.  The  Church 
Than  a  Day  of  Nega=  should  meet  this  in  a  statesman- 
tion  and  Abstinence  jji^g  program  of  protest.  But 
to  stop  with  protest  will  be  but  half  its  duty. 
There  will  be  expected  of  it  also  positive  sug- 


ITS  CHURCH  YEAR  U5 

gestion  how  it  can  be  avoided.  A  positive  Sab- 
bath of  Christian  service  rather  than  a  Sabbath 
of  negative  Puritanic  hoHness  is  what  we  shall 
see  exemplified  in  the  new  Church  Year.  And 
in  its  program  fitted  splendidly  into  this  Church 
Year,  every  evil  of  our  day  will  be  aggressively 
met  with  denunciations,  to  be  sure,  but  also  with 
a  constructive  policy  designed  to  effect  not  only 
its  elimination,  but  also  its  permanent  end.  We 
shall  overcome  evil — with  criticism?  yes — with 
denunciation?  yes — with  anathema?  yes — but 
also  and  more  so  in  the  spirit  of  Holy  Writ 
— with  good.  Overcome  evil  with  good.  How  ? 
By  putting  good  in  evil's  place. 

The  presentation  of  this  subject  I  have  been 
able  to  make  at  this  time  will  not  satisfy.  I 
All  of  Which  Will  hope  it  will  not.  It  ought  to 
and  Should  Exact  Stimulate.  I  pray  that  it  may. 
Certain  Readjust-  The  principles  that  call  for  the 
"^"^^  Church  Year  and  that  underlie  its 

construction  have,  I  hope,  been  explained.  The 
individual  Christian  leader  will  apply  them  to 
his  local  situation.  Many  adjustments  of  the 
suggested  Church  Year  will  be  necessary.  It, 
on  the  other  hand,  will  necessitate  some  read- 
justments in  each  local  situation.  The  country 
church  will  fall  back  on  its  usual  apathetic  state- 
ment— that  our  problem  is  different.  That  is 
true.  Every  church  has  its  problems  different 
from  other  churches,  just  as  every  man's  life  is 


ft6  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

different  from  every  other  man's.  That  is  what 
the  ritualistic  years  of  the  Jews  and  Catholics,  of 
the  Greeks  and  Russians,  failed  to  take  into  ac- 
count. That  is  why  they  have  ceased  to  be  spir- 
itual forces  making  for  righteousness  among 
men.  That  is  why  they  are  effete  and  fossilized. 
But  we  must  not  paralyze  ourselves  by  saying 
that  our  problem  is  essentially  different.  At 
heart  our  problems  are  one.  The  principles  are 
eternal  underlying  their  solution.  The  applica- 
tion of  these  principles  to  our  local  needs  and 
demands  will  steer  us  clear  of  the  egregious 
dangers  of  the  Scylla  and  Charybdis  of  ritualistic 
and  ceremonial  obsession  that  has  depleted  spir- 
itually every  church  heeding  the  clamor  of  its 
siren  voice  and  at  the  same  time  bring  us  the 
vital  efficiency  and  the  growing  power  to  be  had 
first  in  adopting  the  principle  of  the  Church 
Year  and  secondly  in  adapting  it  to  our  indi- 
vidual and  local  needs.  The  churches  of  the 
new  time  will  grow  their  individual  Church  Year, 
and  in  it  will  provide  for  the  Kingdom's  pro- 
gressive advance,  avoiding  all  stereotyped  forms 
and  emphasizing  the  spirit  of  service  with  true 
worship  and  a  wholesome  veneration  for  the  out- 
standing events  of  Christian  history  and  of  the 
earthly  career  of  our  Lord. 


GOD'S  PRESENCE— ITS  POWER  AND 
HOPE 

SEVERAL  times  reference  has  already  been 
made  to  the  need  of  worship  and  its  sweet 
fruitage  in  Hfe-service.  It  has  perhaps 
been  truly  said  that  the  all-embracing  heresy  of 
our  day  is  irreverence.     It  insinuates  itself  with 

deadly  certainty  into  every  de- 
The  Prevalence  ,  ,       c  tr         Ti. 

of  Irreverence  partment  of   our  life.     It  poisons 

and  destroys  wherever  its  vam- 
pire's breath  hisses  its  venomous  stream. 
Freedom  we  have  debased  to  license.  In  the 
Church  this  has  divided  the  household  of  God 
into  156  competing  groups.  In  our  revolt 
against  authority  in  the  state  we  have  cast  our 
anchors  overboard  and  are  sw^ept  by  every  gale 
into  situations  undreamed  of  by  the  founders  of 
our  national  liberty.  In  obliterating  the  division 
line  between  the  sacred  and  the  secular,  though 
intending  to  exalt  the  secular,  we  have  debased 
the  sacred  till  all  things  alike  are  devoid  of 
sanctity.  The  crying  need  of  our  time  is  for  the 
reappearance  of  reverence  in  our  life — a  rever- 

117 


nS  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

ence  that  shall  leave  the  spirit  free  and  yet  keep 
it  in  due  bounds — a  reverence  that  shall  frankly 
acknowledge  the  limitations  of  man  while  grant- 
ing him  full  opportunity  for  highest  expression 
and  development — a  reverence  that  recognizes 
God  as  a  vital  presence  in  His  world  to-day  as 
well  as  acknowledges  Him  as  the  Creator. 
"  Thou,  God,  seest  me,"  not  as  a  spy,  but  as  my 
companion  and  comrade, — such  is  the  spirit  of 
the  reverence  we  need,  crave,  devoutly  pray  for. 
Our  new  Church  has  set  itself  the  duty  of  pro- 
ducing it. 

That  irreverence  is  our  national  weakness  we 
have  been  told  so  often  that  we  tire  of  its  reiter- 
ation.    Distinguished  students  of 
It  is  Our  National  .   ^      r  ^, 

y,  our  society  from  other  countries 

comment  with  singular  unanimity 
on  it  as  their  keenest  disappointment  with  our 
social  structure.  They  appreciate  the  exuberant 
happiness  of  our  people  generally,  they  admire 
the  consequences  of  their  devotion  to  liberty, 
they  glory  in  the  fine  estimate  we  place  on  the 
individual  man.  The  levity  with  which  we  treat 
the  sacred  things  of  Hfe  and  society,  however, 
appall  them.  Respect  for  superiors  and  rever- 
ence for  the  sacred  and  holy  are  so  ingrained  in 
their  thought  and  social  customs  that  the  out- 
standing lack  of  them  in  Americans  occasions  to 
their  sensibilities  a  shock  difficult  for  us  to  com- 
prehend.    They  point  out  that  no  nation  has  yet 


GOD'S  PRESENCE  U9 

been  able  to  continue  that  had  lost  its  sense  of 
reverence.  They  cite  Greece  and  Rome  among 
ancients  and  Germany  among  moderns  as  shin- 
ing instances  of  the  decay  and  canker  that  obsess 
nations  when  their  sense  of  reverence  and  worship 
has  departed.  The  thoughtful  American  receives 
this  criticism  with  the  optimistic  spirit  so  char- 
acteristic of  our  people.  He  feels  sure  there  is  a 
cause  for  our  present  plight  and  equally  sure 
that  there  is  a  way  out,  and  in  both  these  atti- 
tudes he  is  entirely  right. 

What  then  are  the  causes  of  our  irreverence  as 
a   people  ?    The   extremely  reverential   attitude 

of  our  forefathers  was  its  initial 
It  Arose  in  a  Revolt  t^,     . 

Against  Puritanism   ^0^^^^'     ^heir   reverence  was  so 

austere  that  it  hampered  the  free 
development  and  unfolding  of  the  spirit  of  prog- 
ress. Puritanism  had  to  be  shaken  ofl.  In  the 
revolt  against  it,  in  the  day  of  our  new  freedom 
we  committed  that  blunder  so  imminent  in  such 
situations  as  almost  to  be  said  to  be  necessary — 
the  blunder  of  swinging  to  the  opposite  extreme. 
Every  reform  movement  has  in  it  that  danger. 
And  to-day  we  find  ourselves  hampered  with  a 
spirit  of  irreverence — no  less  a  hindrance  to 
progress  than  the  exactions  of  Puritan  reverence. 
The  pendulum  has  swung  too  far.  In  this  situ- 
ation however  there  is  hope — for  pendulums 
have  a  way  of  swinging  in  the  opposite  di- 
rectioa 


J  20  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

A  second  cause  is  to  be  found  in  a  miscon- 
ception of  truth,  or  rather  in  the  failure  to  dif- 
And  Was  Strength-  ^erentiate  the  various  kinds  of 
ened  by  a  Miscon=  truth.  Ours  is  a  day  of  science, 
ception  of  Truth  'pj^g  scientific  spirit  places  a  ques- 
tion mark  before  and  after  every  positive  state- 
ment. Every  proposition  is  subjected  to  exami- 
nation. The  light  of  reason  must  be  turned  on 
and  before  that  light  everything  not  meeting  the 
tests  it  applies  must  succumb.  To  the  scientific 
mind  there  is  no  holy  of  holies,  no  ne  plus  ultray 
no  sanctity,  no  revelation  from  above.  Truth  is 
what  the  man  of  science  craves  and  truth  at  any 
price  he  will  have — even  at  the  price  of  destruc- 
tion of  the  most  tender  and  sacred  tenets  of  re- 
ligion or  of  life.  Let  us  pass  over  the  all  too 
patent  fact  that  scientists  have  often  been  mis- 
taken in  their  conclusions.  Let  us  point  out  to 
men  of  science  that  there  can  be  no  fundamental 
disagreement  between  science  and  the  Christian 
religion,  because  there  is  no  science  in  the  real 
sense  unless  it  be  exotic  except  where  Christian- 
ity has  fostered,  encouraged,  and  permitted  it. 
Let  us  further  point  out  to  these  sincere  truth- 
seekers  that  there  are  three  types  of  truth — self- 
evident,  scientific,  and  spiritual.  Self-evident 
truth  is  perceived  ;  scientific  truth,  apprehended  ; 
and  spiritual  truth,  experienced.  Men  of  science 
have  forgotten  these  things.  Their  tests  of  truth 
are   workable   and   applicable    in   the   scientific 


GOD'S  PRESENCE  J2J 

realm,  but  inadequate  and  inapplicable  in  spir- 
itual matters.  When  the  Christian,  however 
humble,  declares  that  God  has  spoken  to  him 
and  outlined  his  duty  for  him,  no  man  of  science 
has  any  right  to  gainsay.  *'  How  do  you  know 
you  were  converted?"  inquired  the  skeptic  of 
Sam  Jones.  *'  I  was  there  when  it  took  place," 
replied  the  regenerated  man,  and  his  faithful 
labors  in  the  Lord  thereafter  demonstrated  the 
truthfulness  of  his  claim.  The  attempt  to  explain 
conversion  as  a  breaking  up  of  the  accustomed 
paths  of  associated  action  in  the  brain  is  a  denial 
of  God.  A  spiritually-minded  man  knows  that 
such  a  proposition  is  veriest  non-sense.  His  ex- 
perience of  God  is  the  rudder  of  his  hope,  and 
beyond  that  experience  no  man  must  attempt 
to  go. 

A  man  may  be  a  scientist  and  a  sincere  Chris- 
tian at  the  same  time,  but  such  a  man  will 
For  There  is  No  frankly  distinguish  the  funda- 
ConfUct  Between  mental  attitudes  that  must  dif- 
Science  and  Religion  ferentiate  scientific  and  spiritual 
truth.  Nor  must  it  be  supposed  that  the  con- 
clusions of  a  great  scientist  are  as  worthy  of 
credence  in  spiritual  matters  as  are  his  conclu- 
sions in  science.  They  may  be,  but  they  are  not 
likely  to  be.  Mr.  Edison  has  given  his  life  to 
the  study  of  electricity  and  other  physical  forces. 
When  he  speaks  as  a  scientist,  the  world  listens 
and  shows  its  good  judgment  in  so  doing.     But 


J22  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

when  he  arrays  himself  against  rehgion,  in  which 
he  is  a  mere  dabbler  and  sheer  novice,  he  is  not 
to  be  trusted.  I  do  not  go  to  Lyman  Abbott  for 
advice  on  electricity.  I  go  to  Mr.  Edison,  who 
is  a  competent  specialist  in  that  line.  Equally 
so  I  go  to  Dr.  Abbott  for  spiritual  counsel,  since 
he  is  a  specialist  in  that  department.  Mr.  Edison 
would  laugh  at  Dr.  Abbott's  suggestions  with 
reference  to  electricity.  We  must  pity  Mr. 
Edison  for  his  ill-advised,  crude  conclusions  as 
to  spiritual  issues.  There  is  no  hostility  between 
science  and  religion,  though  some  scientists  and 
some  religionists  think  so.  Their  method  is  dif- 
ferent, both  are  true,  only  religion  is  the  higher 
truth. 

A  third  contributory  cause  to  our  spirit  of 
irreverence  is  the  overshadowing  of  things  spiri- 
Materiaiism  Also  ^ual  by  the  colossal  material  prog- 
Helped  Irreverence  ress  of  our  day.  Fabulous  is  the 
to  spread  Q^\y     word     that    even    approxi- 

mately describes  the  material  wealth  of  our 
country.  We  grow  millionaires  at  the  rate  of 
two  per  day,  and  the  billionaire  too  is  among 
us.  We  are  the  richest  nation  in  history's  an- 
nals. The  conveniences  and  luxuries  of  our 
life  bewilder  the  imagination  of  other  peoples  and 
beggar  description.  It  is  not  strange  that  we 
have  become  to  feel  self-sufficient.  Times  of 
prosperity  are  not  usually  marked  by  the  spirit 
of  devotion,  worship,  and  reverence.     It  was  easy 


GOD'S  PRESENCE  J23 

for  the  savage  to  be  reverential,  because  the 
poverty  of  his  life  made  him  constantly  feel  his 
inadequacy  and  reverently  look  for  signs  of  God's 
presence  near  as  his  Stay  and  Help.  So  he  saw 
God  in  everything.  The  rustling  leaf,  the  bab- 
bling brook,  the  whispering  zephyr  spoke  rever- 
ently to  him  of  God.  In  everything  God  was 
present  to  him  and  everywhere.  He  was  never 
happy  unless  he  could  find  spirit  in  all  matter  and 
every  circumstance.  When  it  rained,  he  felt 
that  it  was  his  God  that  sent  the  shower,  but  his 
reverent  soul  would  not  permit  him  to  use  his 
divinity's  name  in  stating  the  fact,  and  so  arose 
the  so-called  impersonal  verbs  of  the  primitive 
speech  of  men.  So  too  when  the  primitive  Roman 
said,  '^ pluity  tonaty  nivit^^  he  did  not  mean  what 
is  signified  by  our  colorless  translation,  **  it  rains, 
it  thunders,  it  snows,"  but  a  deeply  reverential, 
speechless  recognition  of  God  in  the  majestic 
acts  of  the  natural  world.  Had  he  been  irrev- 
erent to  the  point  of  completely  expressing  him- 
self, he  would  have  said  "Jupiter  rains,  Jupiter 
thunders,  Jupiter  snows,"  but  the  name  of  his 
God  must  not  be  taken  in  vain.  Simplicity  of 
life  conduces  to  the  ready  recognition  of  God's 
presence.  In  a  highly  organized  society  there 
is  danger  that  God's  prodigal  blessings  to  men 
may  obscure  their  vision  of  Him  and  even  pave 
the  way  to  their  utter  forgetfulness  of  Him. 
There  is  certainly  danger  of  this  in  our  day  and 


J24  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

this  fact  makes  the  cure  of  our  irreverence  more 
serious  and  doubly  subtle.  The  sacrifice  and 
suffering  we  are  sure  to  undergo  in  fulfilling  our 
part  in  the  world-war  will  not  be  too  dear  a 
price  to  pay  for  our  redemption  as  a  nation 
from  the  ghoulish  grasp  of  materialism  and  our 
freedom  from  the  enervating  vassalage  of  Mam- 
mon. 

This  is  not  however  to  decry  material  prosper- 
ity.    It  is  to  caution  us  against  becoming  mere 

materialists,  to  warn  us  ae^ainst 
But  This  is  Not  ,  .  '         .    ,  f^ 

to  Decry  Wealth       "^akmg     material     prosperity     a 

curse  to  our  souls.  God  does 
not  delight  in  the  poverty  of  His  children.  Nor 
does  He  delight  in  their  exaltation  of  riches,  His 
gift  free  and  abundant,  to  the  place  reserved 
for  Himself — to  the  place  where  the  heart's  affec- 
tions are  centered  on  them.  Material  prosperity 
is  necessary,  but  not  preeminent.  No  nation  can 
be  great  without  it.  Materialism  is  the  framing 
and  studding  of  our  life's  edifice.  It  is  not  the 
whole  mansion.  Framing  and  studding  alone 
cannot  construct  even  a  barn.  We  need  in  our 
day  a  sense  of  wealth's  trusteeship — a  recognition 
of  God  as  the  Giver  of  all  wealth  and  of  man  as 
His  trustee  under  obligation  to  give  due  and 
proper  account  of  all  things  entrusted.  This 
sense  of  trusteeship  is  plainly  taught  in  the  Bible. 
It  is  not  only  the  corrective  of  the  abuse  of  riches, 
but   the  directive  of    their  proper  employment. 


GOD'S  PRESENCE  J25 

Covetousness  cannot  flourish  in  the  lime-light  of 
its  illumination,  and  selfishness  must  fade  out  of 
the  rich  man's  heart  as  he  gives  thanks  for  the 
obligation  imposed  on  him  by  his  trustee's  re- 
lation to  God.  We  must  develop  this  sense  of 
God's  overlordship  in  material  things  or  our 
very  material  prosperity  will  engulf  us  in  a  mael- 
strom of  destruction.  We  are  not  owners,  but 
trustees — that  is  to  be  the  key-note  of  our  social 
gospel,  a  gospel  that  will  save  us  from  the  arro- 
gance of  self-sufficiency  and  for  the  altar  of  service 
to  God  and  our  brother  men.  Such  a  spirit  will 
lead  to  reverence,  because  it  will  lead  straight 
to  God. 

We  are  now  ready  to  consider  the  remedy  for 
the  irreverence  of  our  age.  It  will  certainly  not 
The  Cure  is  Not  to  t)e  found  in  a  return  to  Puritanism. 
Be  Found  in  a  Re-  That  school  of  religious  thought 
turn  to  Puritanism  i^^^  ^^^  in  a  society  unused  to 
liberty  and  thoroughgoing  toleration.  The  life 
of  its  day  was  the  simple  life  in  contrast  with 
ours.  Human  individuality  and  personality  had 
not  then  demonstrated  their  preeminent  worth. 
Those  who  demand  a  return  to  Puritanism  are 
not  to  be  taken  seriously.  Our  hands  are  to  the 
plow.  We  cannot  turn  back.  Forward  is  our 
only  direction  and  also  our  only  hope — for- 
ward to  a  new  day  wherein  liberty  and  reverence 
shall  be  wedded  in  holy  union,  one  and  insepa- 
rable. 


J26  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

Nor  is  the  cure  to  be  found  in  the  suppression 
of  science.  That  remedy  was  futile  when  men's 
Nor  in  the  Sup=  minds  had  been  for  ages  shackled 
pression  of  Scien-  by  a  deluded  spiritual  hierarchy, 
tific  Truth  xhe  ecclesiastics,  bolstered  up  by 

a  base  abnegation  of  popular  opinion  or  rather 
by  superstition  founded  on  fear,  made  the  as- 
tronomer swear  that  the  sun  moved  around 
the  earth,  but  with  the  next  breath  he  declared 
the  earth  moves  around  the  sun  nevertheless. 
It  has  continued  to  move  that  way  ever  since. 
In  our  day  when  men  have  learned  to  think  fear- 
lessly and  to  pride  themselves  on  their  intellec- 
tual prowess,  any  attempt  to  suppress  thought 
and  censor  men's  conclusions  would  prove  dis- 
astrously abortive.  It  would  be  safer  with  a  full 
head  of  steam  already  on  to  fill  the  fire-box  with 
coal,  close  the  throttle,  and  plug  the  safety-valve. 
An  explosion  that  would  wreck  society  would 
almost  instantaneously  follow  such  an  attempt. 
Even  in  this  day  of  national  peril  we  are  restive 
under  a  mild  censorship,  declared  by  our  trusted 
leaders  to  be  a  military  necessity.  Those  there- 
fore who  demand  the  ostracism  of  scientists  that 
religion  may  flourish  cannot  be  heeded.  Some- 
where there  is  common  ground  of  reconciliation 
between  these  two  branches  of  the  tree  of  truth. 
All  truth  must  lead  to  its  Author.  That  Author 
is  God.  We  must  unite  religion  and  science  in 
holy  wedlock,  one  and  inseparable,  that  learn- 


GOD'S  PRESENCE  J27 

ing  and  reverence  may  co-exist,  and  our  new 
Church  will  undertake  to  consummate  this  highly 
desirable  union. 

Nor  shall  the  cure  of  irreverence  be  found  in  a 
return  to  poverty  and  primitive  living.  If  the 
Nor  ia  Ascetic  Christians  should  turn  their  backs 
Withdrawal  from  on  the  world,  pandemonium 
the  World  would    reign.     Asceticism    failed 

to  win  the  world  to  Christ  in  the  days  before 
Christian  men  had  become  wealthy.  If  it  failed 
then,  it  must  more  egregiously  fail  in  this  time 
when  more  than  ever  wealth  has  concentrated 
in  Christian  hands.  There  is  a  Christian  doctrine 
of  wealth.  It  is  not  a  doctrine  of  negation  either. 
There  is  never  a  negative  in  Christianity  unless 
it  be  in  the  interest  of  a  higher  positive.  The 
Christian  doctrine  of  wealth  is  a  positive  injunc- 
tion to  use  wealth  to  the  glory  of  God.  The 
right  use  of  material  things,  not  withdrawal  from 
them,  is  the  essence  of  Christian  trusteeship. 
They  who  decry  rich  Christians  need  to  study 
the  gospel  records.  They  who  denounce  wealth 
need  to  master  the  teachings  of  Christian  history. 
Vituperation  will  drive  materialism  into  a  shell 
of  stolid  indifference.  Wise,  directive  teaching 
of  the  obligation  and  joy  of  Christian  trusteeship 
will  hasten  the  coming  of  the  millennium  among 
men  and  institute  here  on  earth  the  Brotherhood 
taught  and  practiced  by  our  Master.  We  must 
bind  together  indissolubly  materialism  and  spir- 


J28  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

ituality,  make  them  one  and  inseparable,  that 
wealth  may  be  spiritualized  and  spirituality  ex- 
alted among  men.  The  new  Church  will  voice 
this  message  to  wealth.  It  will  recognize  its 
obligation  to  the  down-and-out  assuredly,  but  it 
will  not  forget  the  rich-and-out.  They  are  God's 
children  too. 

We  need  a  constructive  force,  a  cementing 
principle,  a  fellowship  bond,  a  Brotherhood  spirit 
But  in  the  Realiza-  ^^^h  a  force  will  erect  a  structure 
tion  of  Christ  as  able  to  withstand  any  assault  from 
Companion  and  any  source.  Such  a  principle 
Counsellor  .„  ^  ^        ^u        u    i 

Will  nerve  men  to  put  on  the  whole 

armor  of  God  "  and  having  done  all  to  stand." 
Such  a  bond  will  bring  the  power  of  a  united 
humanity  into  the  arena  prepared  to  yield  up 
even  life  for  the  progress  of  the  Good  News. 
Such  a  spirit  will  weld  the  now  warring  elements 
of  life  and  learning  into  a  divine  Brotherhood 
growing  beautifully  as  a  fragrant  new  bloom  of 
the  verdant  spring-time  out  of  the  celestial 
Fatherhood  of  God.  But  where  shall  we  find 
this  force,  this  principle,  this  bond,  this  spirit? 
There  is  but  one  answer — the  cultivation  of  the 
presence  of  Jesus  Christ.  We  are  told  that  men 
to-day  have  lost  the  sense  of  the  immanence  of 
God.^     Then  they  must  find  it  again.     It  is  the 

1 "  Our  age  is  in  sore  need  of  a  new  vital  vision  or  sense  of  God. 
It  does  not  matter  much  how  that  statement  is  made.  The  need  is 
always  fundamental,  but  in  our  age  it  is  particularly  acute.     God  is 


GOD'S  PRESENCE  J29 

cure  of  our  irreverence.  It  does  not  bring  a  sys- 
tem of  supernal  espionage  ;  it  brings  comrade- 
ship with  God.  In  the  realization  of  His  abiding 
presence,  we  can  but  be  reverential,  we  can  but 
do  our  Christian  duty  as  becomes  men.  He 
who  realizes  that  Christ  is  by  his  side  has  already 
triumphed  over  his  baser  nature  and  achieved 
his  spiritual  victory.  It  is  the  duty,  yea,  the 
privilege  of  the  Church  to  make  Christ's  presence 
real  to  men. 

And  how  sweet  the  sense  of  His  presence  is  1 
He  declares  that  He  stands  at  the  door  of 
His  Presence—  the  heart  and  knocks.  Blessed 
How  Sweet  and  thought !  Jesus  Stands  at  the 
Precious  ^^qj..     But   that  is  not  all.     "  If 

any  man  hear  my  voice,  and  open  the  door,  I 
will  come  in  to  him  and  will  sup  with  him,  and 
he  with  me."  Oh,  condescension  undreamed  I 
Jesus  will  be  our  guest  on  the  most  intimate 
terms  of  equality.  And  yet  so  many  refuse  Him 
entrance.  Holman  Hunt  has  painted  in  his  mas- 
terly manner  this  scene  of  the  Saviour  knocking 
at  the  door.  The  expression  on  His  face  is  so 
kindly  that  it  grips  the  heart.  "  Surely  He  will 
be  admitted  to  the  home,"  the  observer  in- 
stinctively remarks.  But  there  He  stands  knock- 
ing, knocking,  knocking.     A  litde  girl  saw  this 

'  in  eclipse.'  God  has  no  practical  significance  for  a  large  part  of  the 
modern  world."— Bishop  V^.  F.  McDowell,  in  '«  Good  Ministers  of 
Jesus  Christ,"  p.  26. 


J30  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

picture.  She  remarked  to  her  mother,  "  Surely 
they  are  not  at  home,  or  they  would  let 
Him  in."  Then  noticing  the  evidence  of  oc- 
cupancy she  whispered,  **  Maybe  they  are  living 
in  the  kitchen  and  do  not  hear."  How  many 
of  us  are  living  in  the  kitchen  of  our  spir- 
itual edifice,  all  unaware  that  at  our  front  door 
stands  the  Lord  of  men's  hearts,  the  Saviour 
of  their  souls,  anxiously  waiting  to  be  ad- 
mitted. 

"There's  a  Stranger  at  the  door, 

Let  Him  in ; 
He  has  been  there  oft  before, 

Let  Him  in  ; 
Let  Him  in,  ere  He  is  gone. 
Let  Him  in,  the  Holy  One, 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Father's  Son, 

Let  Him  in." 

Once  He  has  been  admitted,  life  assumes  a 
new    meaning   and   a   new  dignity.     The   soul 

knows  no  fellowship  comparable 
«tlT«e         -ith    the    fellowship    of    Christ. 

His  comradeship  is  the  essence  of 
joyous  association.  All  other  companionships 
fade  into  insignificance  save  only  as  they  are 
spiritualized  and  revitalized  in  terms  of  His. 
The  realization  that  He  is  near,  that  He  is 
always  near,  is  precious,  is  uplifting,  is  satisfying. 
And  as  we  delight  in  the  nearness  of  those  earthly 


GOD'S  PRESENCE  tZi 

friends  whom  we  love,  so  rejoices  the  sincere 
Christian  in  the  presence,  the  fellowship,  the 
companionship  of  Jesus.  A  little  five-year-old 
girl  crept  cautiously  into  the  study  of  her 
beloved  uncle.  She  sat  silently  for  some  time, 
gazing  lovingly  on  him  as  he  worked  at  his 
desk.  He  became  conscious  by  that  well-known 
subtle  interplay  of  spirit  that  some  one  was 
near.  Looking  up  from  his  manuscript  he  in- 
quired what  he  could  do  for  her.  **  Nothing," 
was  her  loving  reply.  *'  I  just  wished  to  be  near 
you,  uncle."  Just  to  be  near  Him — that  is  the 
soul's  supreme  ecstasy  of  joy. 

The  man  who  lives  in  the  conscious  realization 
of   the   presence   of  Jesus  cannot  be  irreverent. 

The  vilest  men  restrain  their 
And  Casts  Out  •  •       ^u  r 

Irreverence  cursmg   m   the  presence  of  pure 

women.  There  is  no  tonic  for 
right  living  such  as  the  tonic  of  pure  companion- 
ship. Christ  purifies  wherever  men  realize  His 
presence.  Edward  Everett  Hale  used  to  say 
that  he  gained  a  consciousness  of  the  presence 
of  Christ  by  whispering  to  himself,  "  Christ 
is  here.  Christ  is  here."  "  Immediately,"  the 
good  man  testified  to  a  great  audience  of 
university  students,  "  immediately  that  His  pres- 
ence is  realized,  a  holy  aspiration  takes  posses- 
sion of  my  soul."  What  a  beautiful  custom  I 
What  a  hallowed  sanctity  must  pervade  every 
situation,  when  men  feel  consciously  the   pres- 


132  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

ence  of  Christ  as  friend,  companion,  comrade, 
counsellor !  Such  a  man  will  be  clean  in  the 
dark  as  well  as  in  the  light.  Such  a  man  will 
never  take  God's  name  in  vain,  nor  desecrate 
the  Sabbath,  nor  act  irreverently  in  the  place 
appointed  for  worship.  Such  a  man  will  always 
esteem  others  more  highly  than  himself.  Such  a 
man  will  find  his  highest  dehght  in  giving  him- 
self for  others'  happiness,  in  the  true  spirit  of 
Calvary.  Self-sacrifice  will  be  to  him  not  the 
terrifying  gateway  to  death,  but  the  inviting 
vestibule  to  eternal  life.  Such  is  the  man  whom 
the  Psalmist  declares  God  made  a  little  lower 
only  than  Himself.  Our  age  needs  such  men. 
The  scientist  of  this  character  will  reconcile  learn- 
ing and  spiritual  truth.  The  rich  man  so  disposi- 
tioned  will  give  such  an  account  of  his  trustee- 
ship that  a  sweet  savor  will  ascend  from  the  altar 
of  his  service  to  the  throne  of  God,  shedding  a 
holy  fragrance  betimes  over  the  lives  of  his 
brother  men.  Such  a  man  will  be  able  to  ex- 
tract the  best  good  from  both  Puritanism  and 
individualism,  weaving  them  into  the  beautiful 
fabric  of  Christian  character,  purified,  proportion- 
ate, exalted.  It  is  the  conscious  presence  of 
Christ  that  saves  from  self-destruction  by  beget- 
ting the  spirit  of  reverence  in  every  heart, — 
reverence,  which  is  the  coordinating,  uplift- 
ing, hallowing  principle  of  Christian  character 
and  life.      The  new  Church  will  covet  earnestly 


GOD'S  PRESENCE  J33 

this  presence  for  itself  and  for  all  in  its  fellow- 
ship. 

But  how  am  I  to  get  this  realization  of  Christ's 
presence  ?  How  am  I  to  cultivate  it  ?  I  wish  it, 
The  Three  Things  ^^^S  ^OT  it,  desire  it  above  all 
Essential  to  Its  things.  How  am  I  to  secure  it  ? 
Realization  'pj^jg  question  is  a  fair  one.     The 

answer  is  simple.  There  must  be,  first,  the  com- 
plete surrender  of  the  will.  **  Not  my  will,  but 
thine  be  done,"  our  heart  must  cry  out  in  sincer- 
ity. This  is  fundamental.  It  is  equivalent  to 
being  born  again.  We  can  make  no  progress 
in  the  Christian  life  till  we  have  been  born  into  it. 
Then  we  must  line  up  with  Christ's  program  of  life. 
He  promised  to  be  with  us,  even  to  the  ends  of 
the  earth,  but  only  on  condition  that  we  obey 
the  command  **  go  ye."  He  plainly  tells  us  that 
not  he  ^ka^  saith  Lord,  Lord,  but  he  that  doeth 
God's  will  shall  inherit  the  Kingdom.  We  have 
through  the  Christian  centuries  heard  much  of 
the  heresy  of  unbelief.  It  has  blinded  our  vision 
to  the  fact  that  there  is  another  heresy  equally  as 
blasting — the  heresy  of  inaction,  of  failure  to  do 
our  duty,  to  live  lives  becoming  our  Christian 
profession.  The  rich  young  ruler  was  such  a 
heretic  and  he  has  had  descendants  spiritual 
in  every  succeeding  age.  We  must  therefore 
attitudinize  ourselves  in  harmony  with  Christ's 
program,  and  be  fruit-bearers  in  the  spirit  of  a 
loving  service.     We  shall  in  the  third  place  need 


134  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

to  pray.  We  are  told  that  intercession  for  our 
missionaries  can  easily  double  their  efficiency. 
Scripture  commands  us  to  pray  without  ceasing. 
The  Master  never  fails  to  fellowship  the  man 
who  prays.  He  cannot  refuse  His  comradeship 
to  such  a  man.  More  things  are  wrought  by 
prayer  than  most  men  imagine,  for  "  the  effec- 
tual, fervent  prayer  of  a  righteous  man  availeth 
much."  The  man  who  does  not  pray  need  not 
be  surprised  to  find  himself  losing  his  citizenship 
in  the  Kingdom.  Prayer  presupposes  Bible 
reading  and  meditation.  The  presence  of  Christ 
becomes  powerfully  conscious  as  we  unfold  the 
Word  and  meditate  on  its  precepts.  Meditative, 
prayerful  Bible  study  is  devotional  Bible  study, 
and  that  is  the  type  of  Bible  study  we  need 
in  our  day.  Such  Bible  study  is  the  corrective 
of  an  over-exaggerated  intellectualism,  the  cure 
of  unhallowed  scholarship.  It  will  deliver  us 
speedily  from  the  canker,  the  dry-rot  of  mere 
learning,  with  all  its  coldness  and  indifference. 
For  when  we  study  the  Word  devotionally,  the 
Holy  Spirit  enlightens  our  minds  and  purifies 
them  of  all  dross,  utterly  destroying  the  cobwebs 
of  doubt  and  skepticism.  The  surrendered  will, 
the  acceptance  of  our  place  in  Christ's  program 
for  men's  redemption,  the  adoption  of  a  system 
of  spiritual  exercise  through  prayer,  meditation, 
and  Bible  study — these  will  bring  us  into  con- 
scious fellowship  with  Jesus — a  fellowship  sweet 


GOD'S  PRESENCE  J35 

and  inspiring  beyond  the  power  of  language  to 
describe — a  fellowship  fruiting  in  the  peace  that 
passeth  all  understanding,  because  it  is  not  an 
intellectual  peace  and  so  not  to  be  intellectually 
discerned,  but  which  floods  the  soul  with  ineffable 
joy,  an  experience  sure,  steadfast,  immovable, 
everlasting.  In  the  blessed  joy  of  such  an  ex- 
perience every  follower  of  Christ  becomes  con- 
scious of  His  living  presence  and  all  irrever- 
ence, all  frivolity,  all  sin  melts  as  does  the 
dewdrop  in  the  embrace  of  the  revivifying  rays 
of  the  sun.  The  realization  of  the  conscious 
presence  of  Jesus — that  is  not  only  irrever- 
ence's cure,  but  also  salvation's  achievement 
for  man, 

"Thou,  God,  seest  me" — and  I  am  safe — safe 
and  happy  in  Thy  presence.  Happy  the  soul 
This  Blessed  ^^^^  experiences  the  blessedness 

Presence  and  of     that     dear     companionship  1 

the  New  Church  Happy  the  church  too  whose 
members  are  animated  with  the  joy  of  this 
presence.  The  new  Church  of  the  new  time 
will  make  God's  presence  central  in  all  its  life, 
organic  and  expressional,  and  a  blessed  reality, 
passing  description,  in  the  heart  of  its  every 
adherent.  And  so  will  the  new  Church  redeem 
the  new  time  for  the  King  I  She  will  have  found 
her  Lord  and  He  will  have  crowned  her  with 
victory  in  His  name  !  His  presence,  consciously 
felt,    is     her    power,    her   source    of    irresistible 


J36  THE  NEW  CHURCH 

strength,  her   only  hope   of   identifying  herself 
with  the  spiritual  Kingdom  of  her  Christ. 

Let  us  be  up  and  doing  :  behold^  it  is  dawn, 

*^  Oh/     Come  to  my  hearty  Lord  Jesus. 
There  is  room  in  my  heart  for  Thee.^* 


A  MIGHTY  FORTRESS  IS  OUR  GOD 

"The  Lord  is  my  rock  and  my  fortress," — 2  Samuel 22  : 2 

A  mighty  fortress  is  our  God 
A  bulwark  never-failing ; 
Our  Helper  He,  amid  the  flood 
Of  mortal  ills  prevailing. 
For  still  our  ancient  foe 
Doth  seek  to  work  us  woe ; 
His  craft  and  power  are  great, 
And  armed  with  cruel  hate, 
On  earth  is  not  His  equal. 

Did  we  in  our  own  strength  confide. 
Our  striving  would  be  losing ; 
Were  not  the  right  Man  on  our  side. 
The  Man  of  God's  own  choosing. 
Doth  ask  Who  that  may  be  ? 
Christ  Jesus,  it  is  He  ; 
Lord  Sabaoth  is  His  name, 
From  age  to  age  the  same. 
And  He  must  win  the  battle. 

And  though  this  world,  with  devils  filled. 
Should  threaten  to  undo  us ; 
We  will  not  fear,  for  God  hath  willed 
His  Truth  to  triumph  through  us. 
The  Prince  of  Darkness  grim. 
We  tremble  not  for  him ; 
His  rage  we  can  endure, 
For,  lo  !  his  doom  is  sure. 
One  little  word  shall  fell  him. 
137 


That  word  above  all  earthly  powers, 
No  thanks  to  them  abideth ; 
The  Spirit  and  the  gifts  are  ours 
Through  Him  Who  with  us  sideth ; 
Let  goods  and  kindred  go, 
This  mortal  life  also ; 
The  body  they  may  kill ; 
God's  truth  abideth  still, 
His  Kingdom  is  forever. 

— Martin  Luther, 


J38 


Appendix 


Appendix 

What  the  New  Tif?ie  Portends 

I.    The  End  of  the  World 

1.  That  the  present  crisis  points  towards  the  close  of 
the  times  of  the  Gentiles. 

2.  That  the  Revelation  of  our  Lord  may  be  ex- 
pected at  any  moment,  when  He  will  be  manifested  as 
evidently  as  to  His  disciples  on  the  evening  of  His  Resur- 
rection. 

3.  That  the  completed  Church  will  be  translated  to  be 
"forever  with  the  Lord." 

4.  That  Israel  will  be  restored  to  its  own  land  in  unbe- 
lief, and  be  afterwards  converted  by  the  appearance  of 
Christ  on  its  behalf. 

5.  That  all  schemes  of  reconstruction  must  be  sub- 
sidiary to  the  second  coming  of  our  Lord,  because  all 
nations  will  then  be  subject  to  His  rule. 

6.  That  under  the  reign  of  Christ  there  will  be  a  fur- 
ther great  effusion  of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  all  flesh. 

7.  That  the  truths  embodied  in  this  statement  are  of 
the  utmost  practical  value  in  determining  Christian  char- 
acter and  action  with  reference  to  the  pressing  problems 
of  the  hour. 

141 


J42  APPENDIX 

This  is  the  now  famous  London  manifesto  and  is  signed 
by  the  following  men  of  world-reputation  ; 

G.  Campbell  Morgan 
A.  C.  Dixon 
W.  Fuller  Gooch 
J.  Stuart  Holden 
H.  Webb-Peploe 
F.  S.  Webster 
Dinsdale  T.  Young 
Alfred  Bird 
J.  S.  Harrison 
F.  B.  Myer 

II.  Spiritual  Unity  Through  Sacrificial 
Suffering 

(^Dr.  Charles  S.  Macfar tana's  reply  to  the  above  ma?iifesto) 

A  notable  circle  of  Christian  men  has  recently  issued  a 
prediction  of  the  speedy  end  of  the  world.  Their  prophecy 
is  based  upon  the  striking  response  of  Jesus  to  the  bewil- 
derment of  His  disciples,  when  **they  asked  Him,  saying, 
Master,  what  sign  shall  there  be  when  these  things  shall 
come  to  pass?"  "And  He  said.  When  ye  shall  hear  of 
wars  and  rumors  of  wars,  be  not  terrified  ;  for  these  things 
must  first  come  to  pass;  but  the  end  is  not  yet."  "Na- 
tion shall  rise  against  nation,  and  kingdom  against  king- 
dom." "  Ye  shall  see  Jerusalem  compassed  with  armies." 
"And  there  shall  be  upon  the  earth  distress  of  nations, 
men's  hearts  failing  them  for  fear."  ^^  And  the?i  shall  they 
see  the  Son  of  Man  coming  in  a  cloud  with  power  and 
great  glory  y 

The  interpretation  of  these  Christian  men  is  precisely 


APPENDIX  J43 

what  many  thought  in  Jesus'  day.  The  coming  of  the 
Son  of  Man  meant  the  end  of  the  world.  The  facts  of 
subsequent  history  showed  that  this  was  not  what  Jesus 
meant. 

His  prophecy  was  fulfilled :  the  Son  of  Man  did  come 
with  power.  His  coming  in  that  power  was  not,  however, 
the  sign  of  the  end  of  the  world.  It  was  the  beginning 
of  a  new  life  in  the  world. 

History  has  repeated  itself,  and  the  world's  struggles 
have  ever  been  the  travail  of  a  new  birth.  Out  of  them, 
tried  as  by  fire,  has  emerged  a  better  and  purer  world. 

"Think  not  that  I  came  to  bring  peace  on  the  earth;  I 
came  not  to  bring  peace  but  a  sword."  There  are  two 
kinds  of  peace ;  that  of  outward  similitude  and  that  of  in- 
ward reality.  So,  again,  without  any  contradiction  in  His 
own  mind,  Jesus  said  in  His  last  hours,  **  Peace  I  leave 
with  you;  my  peace  I  give  unto  you."  But  He  added, 
**  Not  as  the  world  giveth,  give  I  unto  you." 

War  brings  out  both  the  worst  and  best  in  nations  and 
in  men ;  it  is  subject  to  the  universal  law  of  compensation. 
One  who  goes  across  the  seas  to-day  comes  back  with 
mingled  sadness  and  hope.  He  enters  into  the  experience 
of  the  great  psalmists.  The  same  psalm  consists  of  a  dirge 
and  an  oratorio.  There  is  a  wonderful  and  apparently 
contradictory  contrast  in  mood.  They  move  on,  with  their 
alternating  notes,  from  the  extreme  of  despair  to  the  height 
of  faith,  the  sense  of  horror  ever  changing  place  with  the 
sense  of  hope.  There  is  unity  among  them  in  this  :  that 
their  one  constant  and  unfailing  message  is,  "  Hope  thou 
in  God."  They  all  end  in  the  same  last  resort.  It  is  a 
wonderfully  vibrating,  pulsating  picture,  full  of  dignity, 
breathing  sincerity,  alive  with  pathos,  charged  with  the 
same  solemnity,  yet  ever  vibrant  with   unfailing  and  re- 


J44  APPENDIX 

sponding  confidence,  filled  with  the  gloom  of  realism,  yet 
fuller  still  of  a  magnificent  and  glowing  idealism,  and 
these  psalms  are  but  the  reflection  of  the  varied  and  viv- 
idly contrasting  moods  of  any  seriously  thoughtful  man 
to-day. 

Men  have  said,  with  easy-going  flippancy,  that  the  war 
means  the  failure  of  Christianity;  Christ  stands  before 
Pilate.  But  it  is  not  Christ  before  Pilate;  it  is  Pilate 
before  Christ,  and  if  we  listen  we  shall  hear  it  again, 
"This  is  your  hour  and  the  power  of  darkness;  but  ye 
shall  see  the  Son  of  Man,  coming  with  power." 

Christian  institutions  have  failed  only  in  so  far  as  they 
have  failed  to  be  Christian.  It  is  not  that  their  ideals 
have  been  found  wanting ;  it  is  not  that  their  message  has 
been  untrue ;  it  is  because  they  are  human,  and  it  is  be- 
coming clear  to  the  leaders  of  the  churches  that  they  have 
faltered  for  much  the  same  reason  that  the  allied  nations 
have  failed  up  to  this  moment — because  they  have  been 
wretchedly  divided. 

The  most  hopeful  sign  of  our  day  and  generation  is 
that  while  at  the  immediate  moment  the  powers  of  dark- 
ness seem  to  prevail  we  may  witness  the  steady,  largely 
unseen,  unification  of  righteousness. 

The  most  terrible  thing  at  this  hour  is  its  terrible  waste. 
Indeed,  one  of  the  most  startling  of  modern  discoveries  is 
that  human  civilization  itself  is  so  sadly  wasteful  of  human 
life  and  resources.  The  wastage  of  war  is  the  same  thing, 
only  to  a  greater  degree. 

But  these  are  not  the  worst  of  our  dissipations,  and, 
indeed,  these  wastes  have  been  largely  because  of  a  deeper 
and  more  serious  prodigality.  We  have  let  the  very  light 
within  us  become  darkness,  and  the  saddest  of  all  has 
been  the  waste  of  our  moral  powers,  our  finer  emotions 


APPENDIX  145 

and  our  religious  enthusiasms,  through  sectarian  divisions, 
denominational  rivalries  and  unrestrained  caprice,  often 
deluding  itself  as  a  religious  loyalty. 

The  greatest  social  movement  of  our  day  is  the  effort  to 
stop  this  wanton  destruction  by  the  unifying  of  our  relig- 
ious forces.  One  can  see  it  on  every  hand.  The  chap- 
lains in  France,  through  their  devotion  and  heroism,  have 
changed  the  attitude  of  the  French  people  and  the  French 
government  towards  religion.  The  free  churches  of  Great 
Britain,  for  the  first  time  in  their  history,  have  made  a 
movement  towards  effective  and  permanent  federation. 
The  million  Huguenot  people  of  France,  who  have  been 
extravagantly  divided,  have,  within  the  last  fortnight, 
come  together  in  a  common  body  and  have  sent  to  this 
country  two  of  their  chaplains  as  representatives  of  the 
entire  body  of  French  Christians.  A  message  comes  from 
a  representative  group  in  the  Netherlands,  asking  that  a 
delegation  be  sent  to  them  to  render  such  help  as  it  may 
in  bringing  their  Christian  forces  together.  A  cable  from 
Australia  announces  the  organization  of  a  federal  council 
in  that  land.  While  this  story  is  being  written  there  sit 
beside  the  writer  delegates  from  the  churches  of  Great 
Britain  and  from  the  Belgian  missions  upon  errands  of 
mutual  fellowship  and  practical  service. 

The  first  religious  body  to  meet  after  the  declaration 
of  war,  to  issue  a  message  to  the  churches,  was  not  a  de- 
nominational assembly;  it  was  a  council  at  Washington, 
constituted  by  thirty  religious  denominations  to  speak  for 
them  all.  The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  on 
twenty-four  hours'  notice,  was  ready  to  take  care  of  tlie 
soldiers,  in  behalf  of  all  the  churches,  who  created  it. 
Under  the  general  war-time  commission  of  the  churches 


H6  APPENDIX 

the  work  of  the  denominational  bodies,  the  camp  pastors 
outside  the  camps  and  the  chaplains  and  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
secretaries  within  the  camps,  are  brought  into  cooperation, 
impeded,  to  be  sure,  by  the  limitations  of  our  persistent 
human  individualism,  and  yet  in  an  earnest  spiritual  unity. 
City  after  city  which  had  given  the  matter  serious  thought 
before  is  forming  its  federation  of  churches  with  a  common 
headquarters  and  a  common  administrative  representative. 
The  movement  for  Christian  cooperation,  not  without  some 
caution,  it  is  true,  is  moving  in  a  larger  circle  upon  mat- 
ters of  common  interest  to  the  nation  and  the  world.  Con- 
sultation is  daily  held  between  representative  Protestant, 
Roman  Catholic  and  Jew,  and  the  delegation  of  fifty 
religious  leaders  in  conference  with  the  President  of  the 
United  States  is  equally  divided  between  Catholic  and 
Protestant. 

Out  in  the  field,  so  the  French  chaplains  tell  us,  Prot- 
estant and  Catholic  chaplains,  in  the  hour  of  necessity,  for- 
get all  except  that  they  are  the  ministers  of  the  same  God 
to  the  same  suffering  humanity,  and  our  chaplains,  as  they 
are  all  clothed  in  the  same  khaki,  will  be  clothed  with  the 
same  indistinguishable  religious  spirit.  For  three  years  a 
constant  stream  of  contributions  has  gone  across  the  seas, 
not  from  Presbyterian  here  to  Presbyterian  there,  but  from 
the  Christians  of  America  to  the  Huguenot  Christians  of 
France.  It  has  not  been,  to  be  sure,  a  conference  on 
Christian  unity  in  faith  and  policy.  It  has  been  simply 
mutual  service  with  the  sense  of  a  spiritual  oneness.  In- 
deed, it  may  be  that  a  larger  resultant  service  has  been 
given  because  diversity  has  been  permitted  in  unity. 

During  the  past  quarter  of  a  century  this  process  has 
been  going  on.  Christian  unity  being  approached  through 
common  participation  in  concrete  and  common  tasks.     Its 


APPENDIX  H7 

deepening  has  now  come  through  the  mutuahty  of  com- 
men  suffering.  The  very  day  on  which  this  message  is 
being  written  there  comes  a  cable  from  the  archbishop  of 
Sweden  to  the  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ 
in  America  from  a  conference  of  Christians  of  five  neutral 
nations,  and  the  message  is  a  very  simple  one;  it  simply 
says,  **  Finland  is  in  a  state  of  famine." 

Leaders  in  Christian  education  representing  all  Chris- 
tian bodies  are  now  in  weekly  conference  preparing  their 
study  courses.  They  are  not  courses  in  denominational 
history  and  polity.  The  subject  is,  **What  is  American 
Christianity  going  to  do  for  reconciliation  and  reconstruc- 
tion in  Europe?"  Herbert  Adams  Gibbons  carries  the 
causes  of  the  war  back  for  four  centuries  and,  coincident- 
ally,  in  celebrating  the  four  hundredth  anniversary  of  the 
Reformation,  with  all  its  great  advances,  we  are  obliged  to 
take  account  of  nearly  four  centuries  of  disintegration  m 
religious  forces. 

For  about  three  hundred  and  seventy-five  years  the 
process  was  largely  that  of  the  multiplication  of  denomina- 
tion in  isolation,  or,  worse  still,  in  competition  and  almost 
never  in  cooperation.  The  movement  for  serious  Christian 
cooperation  has  been  in  existence  for  about  ten  years.  If 
we  think  of  that  decade  over  against  those  three  hundred 
and  seventy-five  years  of  Protestant  dissociation,  the  story 
of  present  day  Christianity  is  one  of  progress. 

The  world  is  in  a  struggle  for  democracy,  and  democ- 
racy is  simply  another  name  for  spiritual  unity.  We  knew 
that  man  has  a  soul;  we  are  learning  that  nations  have 
souls.  We  are  beginning  to  discover  that  the  world  has  a 
soul.     The  prophecy  of  Jesus  is  being  fulfilled  in  our  search 

for  spiritual  unity. 

There  is  little  hope  for  the  future  in  leagues  of  nations 


J48  APPENDIX 

and  world  courts  for  political  uniformity,  unless  some  in- 
stitution in  human  form  finds  and  expresses  this  unity  of 
spirit  and  ideal.  With  all  their  human  limitations,  the 
churches  still  symbolize  those  ideals  and  stand  for  that 
spiritual  democracy  which  must  underhe  the  new  political 
democracy.  The  issue  is  determined  by  two  processes : 
First,  within  each  nation  the  unification  of  its  own  spiritual 
forces,  and,  second,  the  rapidly  developing  fraternity  of 
the  churches  of  one  nation  with  another. 

The  reader  asks,  **  What  do  you  mean,  one  church?  '* 
Yes,  we  mean  one  church.  But  how  far  its  unity  will  be 
that  of  identity  and  how  far  that  of  diversity,  we  have  not 
the  wisdom  to  answer.  The  council  at  Washington  did 
not  know  it,  perhaps,  but  it  really  formulated  the  new 
common  creed  in  these  historic  words  : 

As  members  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  the  hour  lays  upon 
us  special  duties : 

To  purge  our  own  hearts  clean  of  arrogance  and  self- 
ishness. 

To  steady  and  inspire  the  nation. 

To  keep  ever  before  the  eyes  of  ourselves  and  of  our 
alHes  the  ends  for  which  we  fight. 

To  hold  our  own  nation  true  to  its  professed  aims  of 
justice,  liberty,  and  brotherhood. 

To  testify  to  our  fellow  Christians  in  every  land,  most  of 
all  to  those  from  whom  for  the  time  we  are  estranged,  our 
consciousness  of  unbroken  unity  in  Christ. 

To  unite  in  the  fellowship  of  service  multitudes  who  love 
their  enemies  and  are  ready  to  join  with  them  in  rebuild- 
ing the  waste  places  as  soon  as  peace  shall  come. 

To  be  diligent  in  works  of  relief  and  mercy,  not  forget- 
ting those  ministries  of  the  spirit  to  which,  as  Christians, 
we  are  especially  committed. 


APPENDIX  149 

To  keep  alive  the  spirit  of  prayer,  that  in  these  times  of 
strains  and  sorrow  men  may  be  sustained  by  the  conscious- 
ness of  the  presence  and  power  of  God. 

To  hearten  those  who  go  to  the  front,  and  to  comfort 
their  loved  ones  at  home :  fortified  in  character  and  made 
strong  to  resist  temptation. 

To  be  vigilant  against  every  attempt  to  arouse  the  spirit 
of  vengeance  and  unjust  suspicion. 

To  protect  the  rights  of  conscience  against  every  attempt 
to  invade  them. 

To  maintain  our  Christian  institutions  and  activities  un- 
impaired, that  the  soul  of  our  nation  may  be  nourished 
and  renewed  through  the  worship  and  service  of  Almighty 
God. 

To  guard  the  gains  of  education,  and  of  social  progress 
and  economic  freedom,  won  at  so  great  a  cost,  and  to 
make  full  use  of  the  occasion  to  set  them  still  further  for- 
ward, even  by  and  through  the  war. 

To  keep  the  open  mind  and  the  forward  look,  that  the 
lessons  learned  in  war  may  not  be  forgotten  when  comes 
that  just  and  sacred  peace  for  which  we  pray. 

Above  all,  to  call  men  everywhere  to  new  obedience  to 
the  will  of  our  Father,  God,  Who  in  Christ  has  given  Him- 
self in  supreme  self-sacrifice  for  the  redemption  of  the 
world,  and  Who  invites  us  to  share  with  Him  His  ministry 
of  reconciliation. 

To  such  service  we  would  summon  our  fellow  Christians 
of  every  name.  In  this  spirit  we  would  dedicate  ourselves 
and  all  that  we  have  to  the  nation's  cause.  With  this  hope 
we  would  join  hands  with  all  men  of  good-will  of  every 
land  and  race,  to  rebuild  on  this  war-ridden  and  desolated 
earth  the  commonwealth  of  mankind,  and  to  make  of  the 
kingdoms  of  the  world  the  kingdom  of  the  Christ. 


150  APPENDIX 

But  this  was  a  war-time  creed.  It  was  a  temporary 
thing.     Was  it  ? 

The  brewers  of  America  have  an  advertisement  in  which 
they  warn  the  people  that  if  prohibition  comes  in  war-time 
it  will  stay  forever.  They  are  undoubtedly  right.  May 
it  not  be  that  the  Christian  churches  will  say  :  If  we  can 
live  and  serve  and  suffer  this  way  in  time  of  war,  shall  we 
not  do  so  in  time  of  peace  ? 

The  failure  of  the  Church  was  not  the  failure  of  her 
Master,  not  the  failure  of  her  message,  and  if  her  various 
assemblies  are  willing  to  save  their  life  by  losing  it,  and 
the  Church  can  thus  find  her  own  soul,  she  can  reveal  the 
soul  of  the  nation,  and  if  the  churches  of  all  the  nations 
can  come  into  a  common  bond  of  fellowship  through  suf- 
fering, they  will  discover  and  save  the  soul  of  the  world. 

If  our  churches  in  America  will  submit  themselves  to 
this  deepening  sense  of  spiritual  unity  they  will  help  to 
transform  the  world's  Golgotha  and  its  Calvary  into  the 
resurrection  on  the  third  day. 

The  clearest  sign  of  the  Son  of  Man  coming  in  power  is 
this  manifest  spirit  of  unity  in  service,  of  unity  in  prayer, 
of  unity  in  spirit,  which  is  laying  hold  of  our  churches  in 
this  hour  of  their  extremity,  and  which,  when  they  come 
to  reach  Olivet  together,  will  lead  them  to  share  and 
rejoice  in  the  victory  of  Gethsemane  and,  when  the  time 
is  fulfilled,  with  their  united  power,  to  roll  the  stone 
away. — Reprinted  from  The  Survey^  191 8  New  Year's 
issue. 

III.    A  Great  Layman's  Idea 

That  the  Gospel  has  power  in  the  individual  life,  there 
is  ample  evidence.  Likewise  its  leaven  in  certain  relations 
of  the  community  is  fairly  well  vindicated.     Out  of  it  is 


APPENDIX  J5J 

to  come  the  universal  hope.  It  has  now  to  prove  that  its 
compelling  dynamic  can  sway  the  parliaments  and  the 
throne  rooms.  Unrelated  denomiuationalistn  will  be  worse 
than  a  joke  in  such  an  hour.  It  will  be  a  tragedy  and 
A  CRIME.  That  the  impact  of  Christianity  may  be  felt  in 
these  great  forums  of  the  world's  search  for  a  permanent 
peace  and  unbroken  brotherhood,  a  federation  of  churches 
of  some  kind  is  necessary  from  the  smallest  village  to  the 
greatest  city,  and  from  these  to  the  Christian  bodies  of  the 
nations  of  the  world. — Fred  B.  Smithy  in  '*  The  Manual 
of  Inter  church  Work'^ 

IV.    An  Official  Declaration 

By  The  American  Branch  of  the  World  Alliance  for  Promoting 
International  Friendship  Through  the  Churches 

In  view  of  existing  world  conditions  the  American 
Branch  of  the  World  Alliance  makes  the  following  declara- 
tion in  regard  to  the  duty  resting  upon  the  Church : 

The  Church  of  Christ  in  America  should  prove  itself  the 
loyal  and  efficient  servant  of  the  nation  in  this  time  of 
testing.  It  should  bear  upon  the  heart  the  President  and 
other  national  leaders  and  the  men  in  service,  ever  pray- 
ing and  striving  that  the  cause  to  which  the  nation  has 
dedicated  itself  may  be  carried  through  to  high  achieve- 
ment. 

The  Church  in  all  its  branches  should  humbly  and  de- 
voutly pray  for  recovery  of  the  lost  consciousness  of  its 
essential  unity  and  universality  in  Christ,  establishing  in 
its  membership  the  feeling  of  a  fellowship  that  transcends 
the  barriers  of  nation  and  race.  It  should  be  the  "  light  " 
and  the  "leaven"  of  the  world,  a  living  bond  holding 
the  nations  together  in  righteousness  and  service. 


J52  APPENDIX 

The  Church  should  build  in  all  its  branches  throughout 
Christendom  a  world-fellowship  of  good-will  and  recon- 
ciliation. It  should  practice  self-sacrificing  service  in  the 
relief  of  suffering,  earnestly  cultivate  love  of  enemies,  and 
stand  ready  to  share  in  the  pressing  tasks  of  reconstruction 
and  rehabilitation  when  this  war  is  ended. 

The  Church  should  teach  mankind  that  God's  laws 
cover  the  whole  of  human  life,  individual,  national  and 
international.  It  should  deepen  the  desire  for  national 
righteousness  and  truth,  unselfishness  and  brotherliness. 

The  Church  should  add  its  strength  to  the  movement 
for  establishing  right  international  relations  on  an  enduring 
basis.  It  should  vigorously  press  for  a  League  of  Nations, 
having  such  features  as  periodic  conferences,  a  world 
court,  commissions  of  inquiry,  boards  of  conciliation  and 
arbitration,  and  adequate  administrative  agencies,  to  the 
end  that  national  sovereignty  shall  be  more  properly  re- 
lated to  international  judgment  and  opinion. 

The  churches  of  America  should  support  the  policies 
announced  by  President  Wilson  in  his  reply  to  the  Pope  : 
"  Punitive  damages,  dismemberment  of  empires,  the  es- 
tablishment of  selfish  and  exclusive  economic  leagues  we 
deem  inexpedient  and  in  the  end  worse  than  futile,  no 
proper  basis  for  a  peace  of  any  kind,  least  of  all  for  an 
enduring  peace.  That  must  be  based  upon  justice  and 
fairness  and  the  common  rights  of  mankind." 

American  Christians  have  in  addition  their  own  special 
and  personal  tasks  in  the  relations  of  America  to  the  Far 
East.  They  should  strive  to  secure  Federal  legislation 
providing  for  the  adequate  protection  of  aliens,  the  loyal 
observance  of  treaties,  the  early  removal  of  all  causes  of 
irritation,  and  a  fundamental  solution  of  the  whole  Asiatic 
problem. 


APPENDIX  J53 

These  are  the  principles  and  the  program  by  which  to 
secure  world  justice,  good-will  and  enduring  peace.  All 
American  churches  and  Christians  should  take  part  in 
establishing  these  principles  and  in  securing  these  ends. 


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BOOKS  FOR  MEN 


ROBERT  E.   SPEER,   P.P.  ^^"V,9 f ^^'«7/' /^^7 

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THE  LIFE  OF  CHRIST 


P.  WHITWELL  WILSON    of  th,  London  Daily  News 

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thought  and  an  unusual  felicity  of  expression.  And  it  is 
good,  earnest  gospel  preaching  as  well." — Christian  Guardian, 

HUGH  THOMPSON  KERR,   P.P. 

The  Highway  of  Life 

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Dr.  Kerr  has  long  established  himself  as  a  man  with  a 
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furnishing  ample  evidence  that  this  talented  preacher  has 
something  to  say  of  an  cnheartening  character. 


ON  FAITH  AND  BELIEF 


HENRY  C.    MJBIE,    P.P.  Author  of- Method  of 

— ■ Soul  Wtnntng 

The  Unshaken  Kingdom 

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Treats  of  the  fundamentals  of  the  Christian  faith,  against 
•which  the  storms  of  time  beat  in  vain.  There  is  a  fine  mis- 
sionary spirit  running  through  the  book,  which  finds  a  special 
expression  in  the  chapter  entitled  The  Ultimacy  of  Christian 
Missions. 

DAVIP    BAINES-GRIFFITHS 

When  Faiths  Flash  Out 

Essays  in  Spiritual  Replenishment.    Net  $1.00. 

"Thoroughly  health-giving,  evangelical  and  consequently 
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Recorder. 

APOLPH  LEHMANN,  P.P. 

The  World  to  Come 

The  Progressive  Manifestation  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God  Among  Men.    i2mo,  cloth,  net  $1.25. 

Points  out  that  Christ's  Messianic  Kingdom,  when  com- 
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what  the  Bible  teaches  concerning  this  Dispensation,  and  its 
place  in  the  development  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

PAVIP  A.  MURRAY,   P.P.       Authorof  "Christian  Faith 
'  and  the  New  Psychology''^ 

The  Supernatural :    or  Fellowship  with  God 
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"Virile  and  will  stimulate  earnest  thinking  and  vitalize 
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mission  field.  It  will  prove  an  effective  weapon  against 
prevelant  naturalistic  Tendencies  in  Bible  interpretation  in  the 
homeland." — Christian    World. 

PAVIP  J.  BURRELL,  P.P. 


Why  I  Believe  the  Bible 

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Does  anyone  knowing  the  author  doubt  his  ability  to  give 
an  clear,  concise  and  convincing  form  his  'reasons*  for  a 
definite  faith  in  the  Book  of  Books.  The  work  will  confirm 
faith,  cure  skepticism  and  convert  the  honest  enquirer. 


LIGHT  ON  THE  GREAT  WAR 

JAMES  A.  MACDONALD,  LL.D.       Editor  Toronto  Globe 

The  North  American  Idea 

The  Cole  Lectures  for  1917.    i^mo,  cloth,  net  $1.25. 

The  famous  Canadian  editor  enjoys  an  established  and 
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Dr  McDonald  discusses  the  growth  and  development  of  that 
spirit  of  liberty,  just  government,  and  freedom  of  individual 
action,  in  the  light  of  its  relation  to  the  Great  World  War. 

V.T^WARD  LEIGH  ?BLU  P.P.        ^^^^^J^S^' 

What  Did  Jesus  ReallyTeach  AboutWar? 

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Unquestionably  war  is  a  matter  of  conscience.  But  in  Dr. 
Pell's  opinion  what  America  is  suffering  from  just  now  is  not 
a  troubled  conscience  so  much  as  an  untroubled  conscience. 
That  is  why  this  book  does  not  stop  with  clearing  up  trouble- 
some questions. 

JlRTNTTRJ    BROWN    T>.T>.  Author  of  "Unity  and  Missions'^ 
AKinUKJ.  Jit^UfTiy,  u.u.  ^^  j^^g  p^j^gj^^  Missionary:'  etc. 

Russia  in  Transformation 

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ing up  to  the  Revolution  and  mind  ourselves  of  fundamental 
characteristics  which  will  undoubtedly  affect  New  Russia  re- 
gardless of  the  immediate  outcome.     The  book  is  most  timely. 

R.   A.    TORREY,  P.P.         Supt.  Los  Angeles  Bible  Institute 

The  Voice  of  God  in  the  Present  Hour 

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A  new  collection  of  sermons  by  the  famous  pastor-evan- 
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messages  of  enheartenment  for  those  who  find  themselves 
perplexed  and  bewildered  by  the  war  conditions  existing  in 
this  and  other  lands. 

JAMES  M.   GRAY,  P.P.     ^,,,^y  ^ElH^^.l^^t.,  Chica^ 

Prophecy  and  the  Lord's  Return 

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What  is  the  purpose  of  God  in  connection  with  the  present 
international  cataclysm.  Does  Prophecy  deal  with  the  world 
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Chicago,  is  well-known  as  a  Bible  student  and  expositor, 
whose  writings  find  appreciation  throughout  the  Christian 
world      Dr    Grey's  chapters  have  unusual  interest  at  this  time. 


ESSAYS  AND  STUDIES 


J.    IVILBUR    CHAPMAN,    D.D.  Moderator  of 

•  General  Assembly 

When  Home  Is  Heaven 

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A  series  of  stirring  chapters  dealing  with  various  aspects 
of  domestic  life,  the  right  training  of  children  and  the  value  to 
the  community  of  a  home  in  which  God's  name  is  honored  and 
His  precepts  extolled. 

WILLIAM  ALLEN  HARPER,  LLD.      President  of  Elon 

•  College,  N.  C. 

The  New  Layman  for  the  New  Time 

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Outlines  from  a  layman's  standpoint,  the  underlying  prin- 
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than  to  a  survey  of  methods. 

ED  WIN  I.  HO  USE,  D.  D.  Author  of  "  The  Psychology 

'  of  Orthodoxy''^ 

The  Mind  of  God     i2mo,  cloth,  net  $1.00. 

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we  have  read  in  many  a  day." — Christian  Intelligencer. 

JAMES  I.   VANCE,    D.D.      Pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian 

' —  ■  Church,  Nashville,  Tenn. 

Life's  Terminals      Boards,  net  35c. 

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whom  can  read  it  without  having  the  conscience  aroused, 
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Standard. 

J.  B.   GAMBRELL,    D.D.  Edited  by  E.  C.  Routh  of 

■  * '  The  Baptist  Standard' ' 

Parable  and  Precept 

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FREDERICK    LYNCH  Editor  "The  Christian  Work 

■  and  Evangelist* 

The   Challenge:     The  Church  and  the 

New  World  Order     i2mo.  cloth,  net  $1.25. 

"Awakening  chapters  that  search  out  the  deeper  meaning 
and  farther  application  of  Christian  principles.  The  whole 
book  presents  vividly  a  responsibility  for  world  service."— 
The  Churchman, 


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